Super Mario Brothers
by Conker8724
Summary: THIS IS A SCRAPPED PROJECT GO READ THE OTHER ONE
1. The Parasite

The Fungi Light immediately switched off without warning, leaving the room completely dark. Although Mario had expected it, it was still shocking to him. He didn't jump, but it did cause him to flinch in his bed a bit. It was only a bit before the television was going to switch off too. Mario took his hat off, and placed it on the rack over his bed. He was half asleep, and ready to get a good night's rest. Luigi was already out cold in the bed on the other side of the room. Mario propped himself up on his arm, and looked at his brother through half-closed eyes. He couldn't believe they were going to share their 37th birthday in just a few days. He felt as if he was one with the man who he spent nine months pressed up against. He was a few seconds older than Luigi, but he saw him as an exact equal. It was in rare moments like this, that one could appreciate such bonds with someone else. He reminisced about just a few of the things he and Luigi had done together. Eating pizza under the tree as kids, almost getting killed on the many missions they were sent on, and spending time with the girls, Peach and Daisy. Unfortunately, Mario was wrecked, and he fell onto his pillow, slipping into sweet unconsciousness. The things running through his mind twisted themselves into an unclear, but pleasant and savory dream.  
  
The next morning, Mario felt himself waking up to he smell of jelly. Once his brain caught up with it, he saw that it was a piece of toast. Luigi was hovering it in front of his face. Mario, still tired, closed his eyes. But instead of putting his head down, he moved it forward. He clamped down onto the toast and laughed, shoving it into his mouth. He sat up to a mild surprise. It turned out Luigi wasn't Luigi at all. It was a young man about a head shorter than Luigi. He saw that Luigi was sitting at the table, fully dressed, obviously waiting for Mario to get up. He turned back to the young man with a large white headpiece with red spots.  
  
"Toad, what are you doing here?" Mario laughed.  
  
"You got a call." Toad said with a simple and calm look. Mario knew it couldn't have been anything serious, because he would have been pulled out of bed around seven, and it was almost 12:30.   
  
"Alright," Mario got out of bed, threw of his clothes, fixed his hair, and invited his co-worker. "I guess we better go see the Chancellor. Walking with us, Toad?"  
  
On Mushroom Way, Luigi asked Toad what the call was about. "I'm not really sure, but it's probably just another issue with those teenage troopas giving the townspeople crap. You'll be out of there by 2, and you'll have some extra cash."   
  
"Wanna eat something afterward?"  
  
"Always, Mario. No more linguini though. That stuff is crazy messed up.  
  
The three walked through the cozy blue and red hallways of Mushroom castle. The only time Mario had ever had any objection to this place was when it became temporarily overrun by Shyguy knock-offs on pogo sticks. Other than that, he enjoyed this workplace. Toad pushed open the double doors and entered with an Italian brother on each side. The man in the green robe and matching headpiece, the Chancellor, stepped forward and greeted his employees.  
  
"Marios, Toad, there is something very strange going on around our area. We just found out about it this morning." He took out a small plastic bag and put on a rubber glove. He reached into the plastic bag and pulled out what looked to be a fire flower sprout. But instead of red, it was black. He held it out slowly, and Mario put out a hand to grab it. The Chancellor quickly closed his hand and withdrew.  
  
"Don't touch it!"  
  
"What's with it? How did this happen?" Luigi tilted his head to the side and stared at the tiny petals of pure black.  
  
"We're… not really sure at all what they are." He slipped it back into the bag, obviously anxious to get rid of it. "The sprouts are generally harmless, but budding flowers are more dangerous. Small patches have been shooting up, apparently at tremendous speeds. You'll see them in clearings more and more in the next week or so. And after that, well… do the math. They're reproducing at an exponential rate."  
  
"So, these flowers just started coming without warning?" Mario asked, completely puzzled.  
  
"Yes, I'm afraid so." Chancellor looked very scared as he turned and paced back and forth.  
  
"Wait a second, sir," Toad responded, "this is bizarre, but what are you so afraid of? I mean, I know huge amounts of black flowers is going to look really ugly in our fields, but…"  
  
"Oh, forgive me," the Chancellor shook his head, "I know I'm getting way ahead of myself, but this is very problematic. These are causing horrible and chronic symptoms. Sudden vomiting, breathing trouble, fevers, and a lot of other things. Things that don't really have any connection, except for the fact that they really seem to be slowing everyone down. This is all somewhat treatable, but not curable. Half the entire castle called in sick because of this."  
  
Mario looked around the room and noticed that only three of the usual six Head Mushroom Advisors were there, and that included Toad.  
  
Luigi thought of a quick solution. "Well, just tell people to stop eating them." He assumed that like most of the other types of flowers, which people of Mushroom Kingdom traditionally used in many meals and soups, they had been using them in their cooking too.  
  
The Chancellor shook his head. "We haven't had one report of them being eaten. People have been catching the full set of these symptoms simply by coming into slight contact with the flowers. Some have only just stepped on them with their shoes, and the results have been the same. I have no idea where to start on this problem. No one's dying, but if no one's able to work, at this rate, our civilization could go into decline. There are no clues, no issues, no motives… this is all just so sudden and unexpected."  
  
"So you called us in on it?" Mario asked.  
  
"Yes… yes I did. And do you know why?" He paused rhetorically, then collected himself. "Because I trust you two more than anyone at this point. We all know the story of when you lived back in Brooklyn. Mario, you climbed a fifty story construction site to save a girl from the escaped mutant gorilla. Your first days on the job as plumbers, you ridded the sewers of millions of monsters. When Bowser first came to power, and you and your brother hit a record-setting seven decoy castles before you found his headquarters, you didn't give up. When King Wart was wreaking havoc overseas in Europe, and our agency asked you to chase him all the way into the sky, you three complied." He said, giving Mario, Luigi and Toad smiles. "Even the noble Princes Toadstool gave you her support to the end. Bowser transformed seven different kings, conquered and enslaved a race of dinosaurs, and built an entire dimension within Peach's castle. And you've managed to thwart all of this." The Chancellor was starting to talk with his hands and pace back and forth anxiously, obviously gaining sprit. "Mario, I know about your good deeds down in the south seas. Luigi, don't think I didn't hear about the haunted mansion. And who could forget the time we were taken over by the Smithy gang? That was an age to remember." He was even starting to let out nervous laughter and sweat on his forehead. "You crossed the great lands and defeated enemies like nothing we've ever seen. Toad, you put together the prototype, and later the first model for our MagiCube technology. And you filled it with party rooms no less. And you've been helping us out at the castle ever since you were only eight. This isn't just for the Super Mario Brothers. You're twenty-two now, and if anyone is going to help us, it's going to be you three. And so close to your 37th birthdays, you two. Three days from now… Friday." The Marios and Toad cracked their smiles acknowledging their boss' praise. "Also, the Princess, should she decide to help. I know she'd be willing to, and the only thing standing in her way was what used to be my walls. I'm done holding her back from what she loves doing--serving her people. So what do you say? Will you save our kingdom?" Mario couldn't believe he was seeing the Chancellor drop a few tears onto his wide smile.  
  
Suddenly, the doors of the throne room busted open. Two Mushroom soldiers ran in, tripping over their own feet, stuttering. The four men and the other employees had been ripped down from their temporary clouds. The Chancellor asked them what the news was, and one of them managed to spit out,   
  
"T-the black flowers. They're growing vines now! A whole patch just expanded, and crawled on top of a house and collapsed it!" He put his hands down on his knees to catch his breath. The other one panted his words out,  
  
"And two kids just almost died. We've gotta evacuate everyone before these flowers get to us!" The Chancellor pulled himself together and acted quickly. He thought for a second, and gave his orders. He pointed to the first man.  
  
"You, get on the line and get everyone in the south side onto the buses and to Rose town and Tadpole Pond. We need to get these people out of town and across the borders. You," he said to the second man, "get everyone in the north side to the Vista and Mushroom Plains. They can pitch emergency camp there. Mario, Luigi and Toad, I'm shipping you out to the city with Peach and Daisy. You need to get as far as possible from these things. I need my boys in tip top shape. If you're out there instead of in these open fields, you should be safe. Now GO! You have no time." With that, Mario, Luigi and Toad ran out the door, read to attack this problem from a safe place. 


	2. Rotten Flarchians

The Mushroom militia were waiting at the departure site helping the townspeople load up and get onto the busses. They were Mushroom men that wore loose green outfits, and headpieces with one green ring around the outside. The trio walked halfway across the parking lot, looking for the bus number that the Chancellor had assigned them. They saw bus #4 and approached it. But a soldier with a clipboard stopped them on the way.  
  
"Mario, Luigi, Toad? An honor to see you boys again." He said professionally and saluted them.  
  
"Thanks, buddy… No need for that, we're all friends here."  
  
"At ease." Toad added. He appreciated the work the militia did, and felt it was unnecessary for them to have to revere them.  
  
"Uh… right." The man said, loosening his stance. "You guys aren't going to be bussing. Your ride is over there." He pointed to a small white plain.   
  
"Wow, cool stuff!" Luigi smiled at the instant upgrade.  
  
While boarding the plain, a woman with an all-pink headpiece and blue jacket told them to get comfortable in the front three seats. There were two sides with only four pairs of large seats on each side. Luigi and Mario sat on the left, and Toad sat on the right. He fiddled with the seatbelt for a while, waiting for the plane to take off.  
  
Luigi nudged Mario. "You think Bowser did this?"  
  
Mario shook his head. "No way. This is too original. Besides, even though he's rich, he doesn't have the power to unleash these new virus flowers so quickly.  
  
About ten minutes after takeoff, the woman in the pink headpiece came into the passenger area and greeted the three gentlemen.   
  
"I have some news for you boys. The Chancellor knows that you are capable of solving this problem once the tasks have been fully delegated, but he also knows of two more men with abilities almost equal to yours. He wants to be ensured with all the help we can get to make sure that this parasite is stopped as soon as possible for the good of the people.  
  
"So who're they going to be working with?" Toad asked, laying back with his arms folded.  
  
"Their cousins, who live in the city we are now heading to."  
  
"Wait a second…" Mario stood up.  
  
"Please be seated, sir." The woman said, putting a hand on his shoulder.  
  
Luigi raised his hands a bit. "You don't mean…"  
  
Toad was puzzled for a second, but then it clicked in his mind. "Your cousins? Wait, does she mean Wario and Waluigi?"  
  
She turned and answered Toad. "Yes. We knew they initially wouldn't be inclined to help with this, so the Chancellor proposed a reward. They gladly accepted. They are going to be accompanying you on this assignment. Until then, you are going to be staying with them in their apartment in the city of Flarch."  
  
"NOOO!!!" Mario let out a howl as the plain continued on.  
  
"Toad, you will be staying with Daisy and Peach. They've already been checked into the hotel."  
  
Toad patted Mario on the shoulder. "I guess I'll see you guys tomorrow then." He walked away with a chuckle.  
  
Later, on the subway bench, Mario studied the city map as Luigi stared blankly into space.  
  
"Wario Mario… and Waluigi Mario. The cousins we share our birthday with. And the most rotten men in the world. How are we going to get through this?"  
  
Mario turned to Luigi. "Now calm down. It isn't that bad. And stop thinking about stupid things like that. We've got a lot of sick people back in Mushroom, and we need to put a stop to this. We just need to figure out how. Or wait for the team investigators." The subway car pulled up in front of them, and they stepped off the floor and through the metal doors. Mario gripped a hand pole and looked around.  
  
"This city's actually pretty nice, once you get used to it."  
  
On Luigi's side of the rail, a man with a huge, sharp black Mohawk, sunglasses, and a joint in his mouth caught Luigi looking at him. He raised his arms silently and faked a lunge at him. Luigi flinched more than accordingly. The man stared angrily at the scared man in green and slowly walked away.  
  
"Right, Luigi?" Mario was facing the other direction.  
  
"Uh…" Luigi gulped. "Yeah."  
  
Later, when Mario and Luigi had gone back up above ground, they were walking along a cracked sidewalk with steaming sewers, bent telephone poles, and crookedly shaped building walls. Luigi asked Mario,  
  
"Is this the street?"  
  
"No, it's off of this street." Mario answered, looking at the map. Luigi couldn't possibly imagine how a street so narrow could have streets that branched off of it. But surely enough, they reached a tiny street that connected the one they were one, and another one. It was only about twenty feet long, and there didn't appear to have any homes. Mario pointed to a bar with rock music blaring from it. They walked around the side and started up a black metal flight of stairs. Just in time, Luigi noticed that one of them was missing. Mario knocked on the rickety door above the bar, and waited a minute or two. A man came to the door in his underwear and a T-shirt. He had brown hair, a really fat head, and a tubby gut. His bright red nose contrasted with his skin, and under it was a scraggly zigzagging mustache. He looked behind him and called out into the next room.  
  
"THEY'RE HERE!!! Alright, come on in." He motioned curtly inviting Mario and Luigi in. They walked through the living room. The TV was on, and they were watching Jerry Springer.  
  
"So what happened to that castle you bought with all that money you found on that island?" Mario asked while stepping over piles of beer cans and empty TV dinner trays.  
  
"What's it to you, shrimp?" Wario shot back.  
  
"Well, if you were still living there, then I'd be sleeping in a king-size bed tonight as opposed to flipping a coin with Luigi for that couch. That's what it is to me." Mario explained.  
  
"Well you really wanna know what happened to it?" Wario looked back at him coldly.  
  
"I gambled it."  
  
"You gambled it?" Luigi joined the conversation.  
  
"I gambled it." Wario repeated. "I used it as collateral at the bookie's office. Remember back in the 90's when yous two went to Dinoland? Well, the bet was you two verses Bowser's army. I bet on Bowser. You didn't end up dead so I lost my castle. Thanks a lot." Wario turned around and went into the kitchen.  
  
"Well I'm so very sorry we had to do that." Luigi looked a little mad at his ignorance.  
  
"And thanks for bringing it up too. Yous guys have ruined my day for the third time in a row."  
  
"How do you figure that?" Mario asked.  
  
Wario counted on his fingers. "First when the freakin' sporeheads woke me up at 2 to tell me you idiots were coming. That was pretty crappy. Second when you actually did show up, and I was hoping you wouldn't make it through the bad section of Flarch City without getting your brains blown out. And third when you brought up this crap about my castle. You wanna go for four?"  
  
"Or maybe… you should have stayed at your parents' house?" A fourth voice came in. It was one that was familiar, but they hadn't heard it in a few months. A very tall, thin and lanky man with the same hair color and facial features as Wario walked into the TV room with a bottle of beer. He, too, was in his underwear. It was Waluigi.  
  
"Hello, Waluigi." Mario said with his arms folded. "We would have gone there, but the entire point of us leaving our house was to get away from the black flowers, and you both know that our parents live in Mushroom. They've left to Rose town, and if we went to stay in their house, we'd eventually be devoured by the plant."  
  
"Exactly my point." Waluigi took a sip if beer.  
  
"So what are we supposed to do? Just stay here until the Chancellor calls us?" Luigi asked.  
  
"Yes. But we can answer the phone by ourselves. We're big boys. In fact, we'll be 37 in three days." Waluigi said sarcastically. "So you two can go downstairs to the bar, or into town until tonight. Go anywhere. Just as long as it isn't here." By now, he was practically throwing them out the door and down the stairs. Mario and Luigi were glad to be gone. 


	3. Suspicion and Distraction

Luigi and Mario walked down the sidewalk of Main St. looking for something to do. They passed a few relatively boring stores, and restaurants. Luigi also noticed a larger building, the Flarch Bank. A few feet later, they spotted a small pub. They decided to take Waluigi's advice and spend some time there. They entered and sat down. The light was dim, but there was an ample amount coming in through the wide windows. The jukebox was quietly playing over the chatter, and several pool tables were in play. A Koopa troopa was working the bar.  
  
"What'll it be?" He asked, scrubbing a glass.  
  
Mario looked at the menu for a second, and then ordered. "Two slices. One pepperoni, and one mushroom."  
  
"I'll have the same thing." Luigi requested. Mario looked around some more at the moderately classed place, and at the people in it. It seemed to be a nice place, until he saw something that caught his eye and made him feel uneasy. It was a Troopa. He had no shell, just a black coat. He also wore thin sunglasses. He looked around and quickly made his way to a table near the kitchen. He thought no one was watching him, but Mario saw him quickly take out a small cubic box with three gold leaf letters on it that e couldn't quite make out. He handed it to a regular-looking troopa, and quickly left. Not even a minute later, the troopa at the table looked at his watch, got up, looked around, and walked out slowly. Luigi tapped him on the shoulder.  
  
"Aren't you going to eat your pizza?" To Mario's surprise, pizza had been sitting in front of him for some time. He finally consciously realized that he had been spying on those two men that made the delivery. It was a very vague event, but it also looked so precise for some reason. Mario tried to get himself to stop thinking about it, but just couldn't. He tried to eat his pizza quickly so that they could leave.  
  
When they stepped outside the place, Mario turned left. Left was back in the direction of Wario and Waluigi's crummy apartment. Luigi grabbed Mario's shoulder.  
  
"Hey, what are you doing? Don't you want to do more stuff?"  
  
"Right… right." Mario shook his head. He walked on, looking at the ground with his hands in his pockets. Mario didn't even notice the plumber accessory shop, or the fact that Luigi ran into it like a child into a toy store. Luigi could tell Mario wasn't up for much of anything, so before he even noticed, he exited the store. He stood in front of his brother and pushed his chin up, meeting his eyes.  
  
"What's up?"  
  
Mario replied hesitantly, breaking eye contact. "I think I saw something in the bar."  
  
"What, did you see a chick you wanted to talk to?" Luigi chuckled and punched Mario's shoulder.  
  
"No, it's not that. I think I saw two guys… troopas that were up to something."  
  
"Well, it's not like we can do much about it. I mean, you need to relax. If it's the black flower problem you think they're connected to, we'll get to the bottom. Just wait for our call, and we'll do our work. No big deal yet." Luigi said, shrugging.  
  
"I guess." Mario said, cracking a smile. But I need to get a little rest. Let's head back.  
  
The two brothers ascended the stairs once again, and pushed open the faded and cracking door. They noticed that Wario was snapping on his suspenders, and Waluigi was pulling on his weirdly fashioned orange shoes. Wario spoke up.  
  
"Chancellor called us. They said they want us in Giant Land tomorrow. They think it might be something to do with all the leftover and lumped up DNA in the monster flowers. They think it mutated into these black flowers."  
  
"I'll tell you what this REALLY is." Waluigi cut in, "Those spore-heads don't know which end of the world is up, so they're just trying to look busy and smart by sending us somewhere. We're gonna be gone for some time, so we decided to hit the casino tonight. You two can come along, but we're not waiting for you when you're still playing with the nickel slots."  
  
"Oh, we never gamble." Luigi quickly declined.  
  
"And you also never have any fun, goody boy." Wario fired back.  
  
"I think we should give it a go." Mario smiled, folding his arms. Luigi gave Mario a look, and he noticed it. "Oh, come on. We didn't bring much, so what can we lose besides that? I know all about the gambling dangers and stuff, but… how much money you got in your pocket right now?" Mario tried to reason.  
  
"Eleven coins." Luigi counted the small change in his hand.  
  
"Okay then, you can either be out eleven or up to the sky."  
  
Luigi's face was solid but hesitant with a frown. But within five second a smile sprouted, and Luigi shoved the gold coins into his pocket. "Alright!"  
  
"Sweetness!" exclaimed Mario.  
  
"Oh brother!" Wario and Waluigi said in unison, slapping their foreheads. 


	4. Dumb Luck

After dinner, the four Marios drove into Center City Flarch. It was around nine, and the night sky had fallen upon them. As the got closer to the center, they saw less row homes and bums. The buildings got taller and the metal and tinted glass became more shiny. After they came off of the road they were on, they turned onto Main Street. It was extremely wide and had open restaurants, towering offices, and City Hall toward the end of the street. But at the end of the street, about half a mile down, there was a huge complex. There were white pillars in front of the door, and the outer walls stretched far and wide. There was a set of large fountains across the wide and full parking lot to the side of the building. Wario pulled their old Honda up to the front door, and a man in a white shirt and red vest greeted him, and got behind the wheel and took it to the parking lot. The Marios were standing on the sidewalk, watching people go in and out with company, luggage, and many other high class essentials. Mario lifted his head to look at the huge sign that blinked in blue, yellow, and pink. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw where he was. There were three golden letters, arranged in a triangle. They were all Gs. Behind the Gs was the outline of a goomba wearing a top hat and bow tie. Under all this, the words flew into Mario and Luigi's eyes and across their minds. They were at Goomba's Greedy Gala.  
  
Mario broke out of his smiling trance. "Wait, I thought this place was just a room in the Party Cube. Since when does Goomba actually have a casino?"  
  
"Remember when the MagiCube technology got introduced to the public, and they started making money off of tickets for play time in the party rooms?" Wario asked Mario.  
  
"…Yeah." Mario answered.  
  
"Remember how most of the money went to Goomba's room since it was the most popular?"  
  
"Yeah." answered Luigi.  
  
"Well now," said Waluigi, "Goo fulfilled his dream, and built the casino. Goomba's Greedy Gala. Let's get inside. I need a drink."  
  
There were long rows of slot machines, tables placed liberally throughout the large room, a huge bar at one end, and a comfy lounge at the other. All of this was in one spacious area with no walls. The only exception was the back wall, made of brown marble, that sported four elevator doors .  
  
At the counter, Waluigi handed Wario a note for five hundred gold coins. Wario pulled one of his own out, and slapped them both down. "A thousand. In hundreds." he said to the worker. The man pulled out two stacks of black chips and pushed them both over to Wario. Five were in each stack. Wario grabbed two cups and threw one stack into each. He handed a cup to Waluigi.  
  
Mario approached the counter. He pulled out ten gold coins and clanked them down. "Um… ten ones please." The man gave Mario a funny "You've got to be kidding me" type of look. After a brief pause, he pulled out ten red chips and handed them to Mario. He put them in his back pocket. Luigi repeated the same process, getting the same amount. The two turned around and saw that Wario and Waluigi had already ditched them. They walked down an aisle of slot machines, studying the gala. The walls were high, lined with balconies. The new carpet felt soft under their feet, and the sight of rich ladies and gentlemen walking about with drinks in their hands made them feel like they were wasting a fortune just standing there.  
  
Wario and Waluigi hit the blackjack tables. The troopa in the red vest dealt them each two cards. Wario had sixteen, and Waluigi had seventeen.  
  
"Cheap!" Wario slammed down the cards and left the table, knowing that any attempt at winning was futile.  
  
"Hit me." Waluigi ordered, optimistically. He was hit with a five. 22. He yelled out, and slammed his cards down as well. They had each just lost a hundred coins. If Wario had stayed, he would have hit to 21.  
  
Mario and Luigi went to the giant roulette table in the middle of the casino. All of the city of Flarch's high rollers were standing around the table. The dark suits and expensive dresses clashed with the red and green plumber outfits that had walked onto the scene. They looked around scared like two new kids in grade school. They saw large stacks of green and black chips, fifties and hundreds, being placed on squares as large as their own tool boxes. The table was so large that several uniformed troopas were walking around on the table placing chips for the patrons, because no one's arms could reach the center, or even the squares. At the end of the table, at the exact center of the room, was a large wheel. A silver ball fell onto it. It spun swiftly, and the ball landed on some number. A few cheered, most gave light moans. A goomba in a bright pink top hat and a pink bow tie was the one kicking the ball onto the wheel, doing the honors. He was the owner of the vast casino. He turned around and noticed the legendary brothers.  
  
"Mario and Luigi." he smiled greeting them.  
  
"How are, you, Goomba? This is quite a place you've got here." Mario stammered at his success.  
  
"Yeah," added Luigi, "it's like just yesterday you owned that cute little weapons store in Monstro."  
  
"Now why don't you stop bothering him?" Wario and Waluigi were standing behind Mario. "And let him do his job."  
  
"Oh, you guys are here too, cool." Goomba said, but with less enthusiasm. "Why don't you lay something on the table?"  
  
Mario and Luigi looked at each other, and then pulled out the chips--five singles each. Wario and Waluigi just shook their heads.  
  
"Okay… five then. Pick a number. You can either pick a full number or split it between two or four. You can also pick even or odds, red or bla-"  
  
"We know how to play, Goomba." Mario cut him off. The table was huge, so there were more than the usual 36 numbers. This time, there were 72. Mario and Luigi each placed five coins in chips on number 37, in honor of their upcoming birthday. They handed their chips to the troopa, and he walked to the center of the table and placed their bets for them.  
  
"Don't get your hopes up though, boys." Goomba told them, "These odds are pretty steep since you didn't split numbers. Your odds are 72 to 1."  
  
"Yeah, you guys are toast. Call your mommy and tell her you just lost ten coins and you need a ride home." added Wario.  
  
"Oh, will you shut up?" Mario snorted. Goomba pressed the spin button and kicked the ball. The wheel spun and the red and black mixed into a blur. It went for about ten seconds, and the ball rolled to a slow halt. Just when it was about to stop far from the 37, a Heavy Troopa who was hovering over the table fell backward, losing his balance. The obese turtle tried to stay up, but he hit the floor with a thud. The chips on the table bounced lightly, and the ball went up in the air about ten feet. It landed back on the wheel, bounced off several numbers, and rolled a bit. Goomba's eyes followed the ball. Rolled, rolled, rolled. It stopped. 37.  
  
"37."  
  
After the pause of silence, Mario and Luigi jumped up in the air. It was their first real casino win. People stared at them, but they didn't care. They yelled like little boys and hugged each other.  
  
"Alright then, congratulations, you two. 360 for each of you." Goomba smiled.  
  
Mario slammed one arm around his brother smiling. "Come on, let's hang in the lounge." They walked off toward the cashier. Wario, after watching them leave, looked back to see Waluigi staring at him.  
  
"Well…" He hit him hard in the arm. "WHAT!?" He then stormed off to the slot machines.  
  
The winners sat on a plump new red leather couch. A waitress brought over their juices that they had just ordered.  
  
"So," Mario sipped his drink, "aren't you glad we came here now?"  
  
"Yeah, Mario. I'll say it. You were right. I'm having a lot of fun. But remember. We're more vulnerable now that we have some money." Luigi warned.  
  
"Yeah, that's true." Mario agreed. "So what are we gonna do about these flowers?" Mario was concered, and quickly hopping subjects. "Waluigi said that we're just going to Giant Land to mill around. So how are we going to solve any of this?"  
  
"Well yeah, but don't worry too much toni-" Luigi stopped dead in his words. His jaw hung open.  
  
Mario looked at Luigi, having noticed that he quickly stopped talking. His green eyes were fixed on something. Mario had no idea what, though. He also would never have guessed it hadn't Luigi eventually spit it out.  
  
Luigi was looking at a site very bone chilling. It was something that had happened years ago, but the precise fear and experience stuck fresh in his head. The man he was looking at was wearing a loose black tuxedo suit and sunglasses. He was laughing with two women and holding a scotch in his hand. His face had gotten a bit more mature. He looked about fifty. His left cheek had a burn Luigi would have recognized anywhere. And he may as well have been recognizing it anywhere, since he was seeing this awful person at the largest hot spot in the grand city of Flarch. He had a strange accent. It was a mix of just about every European nationality anyone could think of. Luigi couldn't hear his words, but after focusing in just a little, he knew the creep's raspy and evil voice. He had large gray ears on top of his head, and a black nose on the tip of his face. Luigi was looking at an old henchman of both Bowser and Wart. Mouser was here.  
  
"M-m-m…" juice ran from Luigi's mouth and fell onto the couch.  
  
"Oh, come on, man!" Mario dodge some that almost fell onto his leg.  
  
"MOUSER!" Luigi finally collected himself enough to shout the name. Mario finally caught Mouser in his view and almost leapt out of his skin.  
  
"MOUSER!" Mario echoed Luigi. They knew Mouser was one mean and ruthless guy. Sure, he wasn't as scary as Bowser, but he wasn't one to be messed with. He especially hated Mario and Luigi. The burn was from when Luigi defeated him by throwing a bomb at him on his way to Wart's fortress. And from the look of things, he'd picked up some extra cash in the last ten years. Mouser quickly stopped what he was doing when he noticed that a hand truck was sitting outside the door to a storage room. A troopa in a casino uniform was leaning up against the wall next to it having a cigarette. Mouser stormed over to him and began screaming in his face. He pulled the cigarette out of his mouth and threw it in someone's drink. He pointed into the storage room and then to the front door. He ripped the name tag off the troopa. The startled employee pushed the hand truck into the storage room, and then left through the front door. He had just been fired. Mario noticed something about the hand truck. It struck his mind like a brick. There were small white boxes with gold leaf letters on them. Three G's. The troopa from the café was delivering one. Mario was about to get up to walk blindly into the storage room, but decided not to, as getting his neck snapped personally by Mouser wasn't on his to-do list that night. He knew they still had to get in there and find out what was going on. It was clear that Mouser was running something. And he wanted it to be secret. Luigi turned to see something out of the corner of his eye. It was a smoky table in the corner of the room. Three troopas were sitting at it, and they had one of the boxes in the middle of the table. One was slowly opening it and explaining something to the others. Without thinking or talking, Luigi shot off the couch and started to walk to the table. When he was halfway there, Mario grabbed his hand. He started to pull him away telling him that they had to leave as quickly as possible, but Luigi was close enough to see what was in the box.   
  
"Black seeds. And black flowers." Luigi whispered. "That's what's in the boxes." Mario froze.  
  
"Mouser and Goomba are behind this?" Suddenly, the casino didn't look so pleasant anymore. Winning more money was the least of Mario and Luigi's worries at this point. They saw several hammer soldiers already blocking the doors and eying the Mario brothers. Everything was happening very quickly and uncomfortably. The only gamble they were making now was which way to go to avoid having their arms and legs chopped off and the rest of them buried in holes in the desert. Goomba was an easy man to talk to, and they knew he'd explain what in the name of Yellow 5 was going on. They went to the roulette table and curtly tapped Goomba on the shoulder. He turned around.  
  
"How can I help you boys, I'm a little busy?"  
  
"Well, you can tell us why the hell you're producing vomit flowers in association with Mouser!" Mario barked at him. Goomba just closed his eyes and sighed. He tapped his foot twice and a panel opened up in front of him on the table. A large red button was in the middle. He stepped on it. Two muscular troopas in sunglasses apprehended them. This was a public casino, so Goomba didn't want to cause a ruckus. Neither did Mouser. Mouser knew they were there all along. It was the perfect and most unexpected opportunity to catch and destroy the Marios.  
  
It had been quite a day so far. They had been pulled out of bed to investigate flowers, shipped off to their stupid cousins' place, and instantly won a mini fortune of 360 coins each. Now they were sitting in a small jail cell in the basement of Goomba's casino. Once the brothers regained consciousness, they noticed griping from on the other side of the wall. It was Wario. Mario stuck a hand out of his cell, and tried to push it as far as he could toward the cell next to him.  
  
"Hey, you guys! We're in here! We need to get out quick!"  
  
"Oh, thanks, fountain of knowledge!" Wario yelled. "These guys are gonna cut our freakin' heads off if we don't split soon!"  
  
A metal door opened and a familiar man walked in. He had a troopa guard on each side. It was mouser. "So, you four thought you could foil it? You thought you could stop me?! Mouser?!" He looked angrily at Mario, then at Waluigi.   
  
"Why are you doing this!" Mario shouted. "Stop it! Stop these plants right now!"  
  
Mouser laughed and threw his hands in the air. Then he punched Mario sharply in the cheekbone. He was a strong man. Mario flew back against the wall. "Sure, I'll stop if you like! Hah! And I'll also tell you every detail of the plan! Heheheee!" Mouser puffed a cigarette. "Get them out. And kill them." Mouser left the room and left the work to the troopas. They drew machine guns and one of them started to unlock one of the cell doors. In the middle of unlocking the door, a red berry alarm started flashing, and a siren sounded. They looked at each other, and the troopa pulled out the key. He stuffed the key ring into his pocket and the two ran out of the room, cocking their guns.  
  
"Oh, great, now we're still stuck in here." Mario threw his arms in the air.  
  
"No, this is good. That bought us some time." Luigi encouraged.  
  
"No, all this bought us is more time to stew in nausea over our coming death!"  
  
From on the other side of the wall, Waluigi yelled at the two. "Why don't you quit whining and THINK! We need to find a way out of here, remember?!"  
  
Mario rolled his eyes. "There's no way out. This is a jail cell!" In despair he leaned up against the door. It wasn't very good support. It swung out from under him very quickly, and he fell on his back with a thud. It was open.  
  
"Good job." Wario said with a look of shock on his face. Luigi stepped over Mario's body and ran to the desk. He searched the top quickly, shuffling through papers, then scanned all the drawers. There were no keys.  
  
"No keys. We'll have to come back for them later." Luigi helped Mario up and they ran out of the room.  
  
After a short pause of looking at the door, after Mario and Luigi were long gone, Waluigi waved and said "Yeah, thanks guys! …Assholes."  
  
Mario and Luigi ran down a dank hallway looking for an exit. Or a troopa with a master key. Whichever came first. They pushed a button at the end of the hallway, and a door split open. Mouser was right on the other side. He had two huge hammer troopas behind him. Mouser smiled a grin, and Mario and Luigi screamed like banshees. The took off down the hallway, and completely outran the tubby mouse and the heavy reptiles. They slammed the button at the end of the hallway repeatedly, and grabbed one of the small white boxes from the hand truck to take home as incriminating proof. It was evident that they were coming out of the same storage area Mouser had fired someone from.   
  
"Do naught let zem have that!!!" Mouser screamed. Mario and Luigi darted across the floor, hopped up onto the roulette table and across it. Luigi, being the higher jumper was able to make it up onto a row of slot machines, carefully trotting down it, and Mario dodged a crowd of people like a little kid running through a mall. They almost made it to the door, but then they noticed the many guards standing there. They slid to a stop and ran the other direction toward the back wall. They had to go up into the maze-like hotel area. Luigi punched in a button and waited for the elevator to come. Agents and guards ran toward them, and as soon as the door opened, Mario and Luigi entered quickly. Luigi slammed a button close to the top to get the door to close. It did so just in time. The elevator started to rise quickly.   
  
"Just what the heck is going on here?!" Mario screamed.  
  
"And who tripped that alarm?" Luigi flailed. Suddenly, a hole opened up in the ceiling and a think green cloud started to pour in. They didn't know what it was, but it sure didn't look like the routine air freshener. "Hold your breath quick!" Luigi took a deep breath and cupped his hands over his mouth. Mario did the same. Floor 20. The green closed around them. Floor 30. Their heads started to hurt. Floor 40. Their chests started to pop in and out involuntarily. 50. Mario fidgeted on the floor while Luigi pounded on the door. 60, 61, 62. They piled out and fell into the hallway. Their faces were red, and they were gasping for air. A woman in a bathrobe screamed at the bizarre display, and when the Marios caught enough air in their lungs to move, the apologized and started to run down the hallway. The elevator next to the one they had just come out of opened. Six troopas came out. A man came out of the kitchen wheeling a metal cart with food on it. Mario and Luigi slipped into the elevator that was still open, and hit 70. The troopas did the last thing they could do. The grabbed the cart from the man's hand, and slammed it as hard as they could into the elevator in an attempt to knock the Marios unconscious. It sort of worked. It hit Luigi in the hip bone bruising him, and Mario in the solar plexes, a the most sensitive part of the midsection. They both collapsed onto the cart, and the elevator started to rise. They were so delirious and short of breath they couldn't see or speak. The doorbell dinged, and the door opened. They felt a light breeze on their heads. Mario's leg fell down, and knocked the wall. The leverage knocked them both out of the elevator and sent them rolling. The incline of the roof went downward a bit, and just enough to send them rolling toward the edge of the building. They hit a small bump and the jolt sent them flying off. In that instant, they regained consciousness, and saw the entire city of Flarch from 70 stories up. It was sort of like riding a bike hitting a piece of wood, and flying a bit through the air, knowing you were going to land and scrape yourself. Only about a thousand times worse. In this case, they were rolling out of the elevator on the roof of a casino/hotel half-beaten and on a food cart to fall 70 stories into some nasty traffic. They fell a few inches and felt something grip around their ankles. The two things pulled them up to safety.  
  
"Are you two ready t go home yet?" Wario slapped Mario's half-dead face.  
  
"Yeah, I've had just about enough." Waluigi flicked Luigi on the nose. "This is the last time we take you anywhere." 


	5. Quite Annoying Revelations

The Marios escaped back into the building after letting the heat die down. They took the elevator back to the second floor and kicked in a hotel room door. The room was empty, so they opened the window and quickly went down the fire exit. They scattered and went through the parking lot to Wario and Waluigi's car. Luigi felt a chill.  
  
"Wait, we don't have the keys! The valet took them!"  
  
"Crap, and we can't go back into the casino!" Mario remembered as well. Waluigi, who was already in the car, noticed something relieving, but at the same time, spooky.  
  
"The keys are in the ignition." He reached out and touched them to see if he was just seeing things. The familiar set of keys were placed into the ignition, ready for takeoff. Mario didn't believe what he was hearing.  
  
"The keys are back in the car?" He wasn't mad at all, but he certainly was puzzled. There was some silence, but after the pause, the four got into the car and drove out of the parking lot quickly and quietly. On the ride home, something that was in the back of Mario's mind suddenly jumped to the front.   
  
"Uhh… Wario?" Mario spoke up and broke the silence.  
  
Wario sighed. "What?"  
  
"How did you guys get out of the jail cell?"  
  
"Oh, yeah, we never told you." Waluigi came in. "These two guys in masks came in. They had keys on them. They opened the door, told us to leave quick, and got out of there."  
  
"What did they look like?" Mario further questioned.  
  
"They had all black clothes on. One of the guys looked like a walking egg. Only fatter. Like a little kid. The other was like Luigi. But he clanked when he walked. Like he was made of plastic."  
  
Luigi searched for even the vaguest explanation. "Were they Ninjis?"  
  
"No!" Wario yelled. "They were just… guys." he repeated. Mario bit his lip and scratched the back of Wario's seat, obviously concentrating on thought. Luigi got his attention and gave him an interrogative look and hand motion. Mario just shook his head quickly. Mario knew something. But at the same time he was clueless. Close to midnight, they pulled in behind the bar. They went upstairs, and Waluigi called the castle. Mario and Luigi went to the TV room and collapsed. Niether one of them took the couch.  
  
It felt like five minutes later. Except the sun was up and rising fast. Mario and Luigi each felt something slimy and hard hit their face, shocking them and sending them out of their skin. They were hands with morning sweat on them.  
  
"Get up, we've gotta go over to the hotel the next city over." Waluigi's unbearable breath hit Luigi's face like a blow dryer. Mario rubbed his eyes.  
  
"What hotel? Why?" Wario sipped a beer at ten in the morning.  
  
"We're picking up your teeny-bopper girlfriends and the peanut terd. Get in the car." Wario stepped not over Mario, but right on his stomach.  
  
On the way to the hotel, Mario asked what they were doing going to get Peach, Daisy, and Toad.  
  
"They think they have some sort of info on these flowers and crap. They don't though. They said they wanted to talk to US about it." once again, Wario simplified how much of an idiot everybody but himself was.  
  
The Marios parked the car and walked into the hotel. A bellhop approached them as if on cue.  
  
"Are you four Mario Mario, Luigi Mario, Wario Mario, and Walui-"  
  
"Yeah, that's us, kid." Waluigi cut him off curtly. He trembled and directed the four.  
  
"Right this way, sirs." They rode the elevator to a high floor, to an obviously classy level. The bellhop knocked on the door, and left to the ground floor. A redhead in a yellow T-shirt and sweatpants answered the door. After she studied who was at her room, she stuck her tongue out, and followed that with a grin. She jumped up and wrapped her arms around Luigi screaming. Luigi bounced her and then placed her on the ground.  
  
"Hey, Daisy! We sure missed you." said Mario. Luigi would have been the one to say it, but Luigi's mouth was a bit occupied at the moment. Wario was already tired from the long walk from the car to the elevator. He didn't hesitate to invite himself in and eat something.  
  
"Aaagh!" came a high pitched voice from in the next room.  
  
"Ah, crap!" Daisy broke away from Luigi. "Come on in, guys."  
  
The rest of the Marios piled in, and waited in the living room. Mario and Luigi sat nervously on the couch, while Waluigi twiddled his thumbs laying across a loveseat. Waluigi closed his eyes and shook his head as he heard Peach and Daisy yelling at Wario about something. It was obvious Wario did that a lot while Waluigi waited for him. Wario gimped out of the kitchen wiping his face, followed by Daisy and Peach.  
  
"Why do you ALWAYS have to be like that? Can't you just once have manners?" Peach flailed. In heavy contrast, Wario threw the last bite of a pie into his mouth. Peach rolled her eyes and flopped down between Mario and Luigi.  
  
"I'm glad you're having an okay day so far." Mario said to each, who was staring into space. She turned and kissed Mario on the nose.  
  
"Sorry about all that. I need to tell you why I called you guys over today."  
  
"Well, you better," Wario was licking cream off of his gloves. "It isn't even ten yet, and I'm in some stupid hotel listening to you."  
  
"It's not even ten and you're in MY room!" a new voice joined in. A short guy in a bathrobe came in. It was Toad.  
  
"Hey there, terd." Waluigi was still lying down with his hat over his eyes. Toad bopped him on his hooking nose.  
  
"I told you to stop calling me that."  
  
"Whatever, terd." Waluigi got up and started to stretch. "So what is it you people want anyway?"  
  
"It's about what you guys found at the casino last night." Daisy walked around a bit. "When you called the Chancellor, he sent a team over. They cracked the place open and the flower operation was found. All them men got out, but they caught one.  
  
"Did Mouser get away?" Luigi asked excitedly.  
  
"Mouser's the first one that got out, of course." Daisy knew this only from instinct. "The guy they caught and questioned wasn't even supposed to know of the operation. He wasn't working on it at all. We were lucky."  
  
"Who was the guy?" Mario inquired.  
  
"Oh, I think it was some troopa." Peach chimed. "He was a blackjack dealer, and he snooped around a lot. When Mouser fired him, he gave them everything they needed to know."  
  
"And do you guys know what THAT means?" Daisy said as she pressed Wario's nose in. "We're going to Blooper Island."  
  
"Wait a second, why Blooper? What in the name of anything does that stupid beach have to do with the flowers? Besides, we were only supposed to find things out, and we got done early."  
  
"Oh, please!" Daisy sighed. "You wanted to gamble, and you did just that. Mario and Luigi found everything out. You two talk like you're trying to keep them out of a job."  
  
"Well, we kept them out of the obituaries, it's the least we can do."  
  
"…What?" Peach sounded concerned. Toad spoke up again. He had left and gotten fully dressed in his usual outfit before anyone noticed he was gone.  
  
"Never mind that now. The point is, we're going to blooper to attack the farm and factory. It turns out they're growing them on Blooper and prepping them in dirty places like Flarch. Speaking of which, the casino's already running again, and Goomba got off scott-free. But at least it's just a casino now."  
  
"I don't mean to be stupid," Wario said irritably, "but who exactly does "we" include, and why are "we" going on this idiotic mission? Doesn't Mushroom have it's own organization meant for this?"  
  
"WE are going." Daisy made a hand motion indicating everyone in the room. "Myself, Peach, Toad, Mario, Luigi, Waluigi, and you."  
  
Wario recapped. "Two plumbers from Brooklyn. Two more idiot plumbers from Brooklyn. Two ditzy princesses from Mushroom and Sarassaland. And finally, the seventh wheel. A little terd who's supposed to be sitting behind a desk at the castle. Sure, that sounds much better than the people actually hired for the job."  
  
"Look, fatty," Toad shot back, "we're doing this because we don't want to put anyone else at risk. Besides, Mouser, Goomba, and I don't even wanna know who else is behind this. So I just don't feel safe unless I see for myself what this is."  
  
"Hey, stupid cousins," Wario searched for agreement, "don't you have any objection to this suicide mission?"  
  
"Well, we've gotta stop all this bullcrap, so let's go do it." Luigi said determinedly.  
  
"No way, no way, NO WAY!" Waluigi kicked the air. "There's no way I'm going to Blooper." 


	6. Blooper Boozer

The plane came and picked up the caravan of seven. The castle wouldn't have wanted that to happen, since it wasn't part of the plan, but Peach and Toad were able to get it out there without a hitch. When they were boarding the plane, Toad pulled aside the two pilots and the attendant woman.  
  
"Guys, I know you're the ones that use the plane, but I really don't think it's a good idea you come with us. Would it bother you if I had a ride take you back to the Mushroom Headquarters until the castle and town are safe again?" It was straightforward, but Toad knew he was going against the grain. The two pilots looked at each other, and whispered to the attendant. She spoke up.  
  
"Yes, we understand."  
  
"Really? Thanks, I really appreciate this. I'll have a vehicle come out here for you in about an hour."  
  
"Don't worry, Mr. Toad, we can take care of it. You go on." A pilot insisted.  
  
"Okay. Thanks again, guys. I've gotta get going. Toad closed the door, and walked toward the front of the plane, to the cockpit.  
  
"Flying alone then?" Mario asked.  
  
"Yeah, I don't know why they were so understanding." Toad was puzzled.  
  
"Maybe because they're not as stupid as you, and they know not to go to Blooper at a time like this." Wario answered.  
  
The conversation died after that, and Toad made the takeoff from the small parking lot they were in. In about three hours, they had made it to international waters. The water was sky blue in every direction. The sun was shining, and there were no clouds at all in the sky. They lowered altitude, and spotted a small chunk of five-foot rocks. They knew they were coming up on Blooper Island. Blooper was actually a set of islands. There were four of them. One of them was the smallest of the four, and housed the residents in a village. Two others were livestock. All the food and animals were grown there. The place was subsequent and peaceful. The communal people had it all under control, except for the fourth island, about five miles in diameter, which was uncharted rain forest. It was much too thick and dangerous for the tranquil people to want to test it.  
  
The small white plain landed on a wide dirt runway. The day was pushing noon, and all of the residents were up and about. Children were carrying bails of hay around, women were planting crops, and the men were doing other farm work. All of the houses were close together, but the yards were also big. Some of the people were mushroom people, others were human. Some troopas and goombas walked around town also. Toddlers played in the yards, and elderly men sat in rockers on the porches watching them. The group of seven that had never lived in a place like this, an island run by peaceful hippies, looked at their surroundings. It was so much more laid back then the countryside, let alone the city. The heros made their way to a small field and sat under a tree. Daisy was leaning up against the tree. She directed the group with her words,   
  
"So, they're growing these things here on Blooper. We need to find out what's going on and how to stop them." Waluigi stopped her before she said anything important.  
  
  
  
"Look, kid, we can sit here and play Blue's Clues all day, or we can talk to a guy who KNOWS something. Follow me." While most of the houses were bright blue with straw and wood roofs, there was a different building that sat at the end of a certain avenue. It had a straw roof, and the back of it faced the main farm land as the rest did, but it was faded, dark and cracked. One of the doors was half hanging off the building. There was a crooked wooden sign with three black letters painted onto it. BAR. They were all standing in the grass near the small beach. The bar didn't even have any windows that faced the beach. It was rather depressing just to look at. More than a few people were confused.  
  
"You just wanna get drunk, don't you?" Toad shook his head.  
  
"Yes, you little fungus-child. I do want to get drunk. But that isn't why we came here. I know a guy."  
  
"You know a guy." Mario echoed him. "Why the hell didn't you say anything before?"  
  
"I was on the plane for a good three hours, and I got to thinking," Waluigi explained, "you idiots wanted to come here and do this stupid flower thing. I'm pretty damn sure you don't know what you're doing. But either way, I know you're not going to leave until you get something done. There's a guy in there that spends about thirty hours a day at the bar. He's Blooper Island's imperfection. The only thing he's good for is his connections. If anyone does something somewhat significant, he knows about it. And every once in a while, he'll spit out info to someone if he feels like it. You're lucky I came to this stupid water park with you. I went to plumber school with this guy.  
  
"He's a plumber like us?" Mario asked.  
  
"No." said Waluigi. "But for some reason he always hung around on campus. He joined the Koopa Army as a Ninji so he could get the free outfit." The group walked into the bar. Waluigi approached a Ninji who had his head down. He was very short, and wore only the black pants. The top half of the Ninji uniform was much too hot for Blooper Island. He was thin and had a mop head of hair. He was out cold, asleep. Waluigi slapped him on the back of his head. "Wake up, Scojum!" The guy slowly lifted his head.  
  
"Who's there?! Why ya smackin' me?"  
  
"Open your eyes, idiot." Scojum did that. He was obviously very drunk, and tried to guess who he was talking to.  
  
"Cheryl?" He sounded semi-sure. "I swear, I called you but-"  
  
"Not Cheryl, but close. Waluigi."  
  
"Waluig-…wha, Waluigi!" He was waking up slowly. "Oh, man, I never got to thank you-"  
  
"Yeah yeah yeah, everything I ever did for you. Changing your grades in college, breaking you out of jail, all that crap."  
  
Wario made an attempt to catch up on his history. "How come I've never even met this guy?"  
  
"Because, kid," Waluigi knocked on Wario's head with his fist, "you spent all your time sleeping and eating. Remember the time you slept for three days straight after a party?"   
  
Wario's creepy smile sank. Scojum ordered another scotch and a dish of cheese fries.  
  
"Right then, you ex-Ninji, you need to tell us some things. Seen any flowers lately? Besides the ones at the hospital."  
  
"What's it to ya?" his tone quickly changed. "And what's it worth to ya?"  
  
"I don't get to go home until I do something… don't ask. And, what's it worth to me?" Waluigi pulled out a brown paper bag. Out of that bag, he pulled two sandwich bags. They were stuffed to the brim with what looked like green hay. Looks of shock came to the faces of Mario, Luigi, Peach, Daisy, and Toad. Scojum's eyes turned to dollar signs. He reached up for them.  
  
"Ohhh, I can smell it from here! Gimmie!" Waluigi pulled them away.  
  
"Not so fast. Talk, dope boy."  
  
"Okay! Okay! The um... yeah, the flowers. Okay, so, there's this place. The… the big island. The one with the forest. A factory. That's the… oh God they smell so GOOD!" he trailed off and looked at the bags, his fingers twitching.  
  
"Well!?" Waluigi hunched over and got in Scojum's face. His evil face scarred him into talking more.  
  
"AH!!! Oh yeah, well, the place. I don't know how to get there from here, but I know a guy that does. You need to go to Yo'Ster. Talk to Boshi. He knows that place. I swear."  
  
"You better not be lying." Waluigi tossed the two bags to the floor. Scojum picked them up and shoved them into his pockets, grinning. The seven walked out of the bar.  
  
"Waluigi!" Daisy slapped him on the cheek. "I can't believe you just did that!"  
  
"Please shut up, mommy. Do you even know what was in those bags?"  
  
"Try explaining it to us then." Luigi folded his arms.  
  
"Remember when I ran into the market and bought basil, scissors, and vinegar?" It took a good fifteen seconds, but the group finally put two, two, and two together. Toad fell on the floor and Peach and daisy fell to their knees. Wario, Mario, and Luigi were holding their stomachs. Waluigi folded his arms in triumph. They were all in hysterical laughter.  
  
They rented a fairly large rowboat. The Arios rowed the oars while the Igis controlled the two rudders in the back. Daisy and Peach discussed what was going on. Toad took a nap.  
  
"What grade is that kid going into? Fifth? Sixth?" Waluigi asked, his eyes fixed on the water. Daisy cut into his bashfest.  
  
"What is with you two and Toad? You haven't even met him more than about, what, five times? You don't always have to make fun of him."  
  
"I see your point, but the question is, which is funner? Your way, or ours?" Peach, lying on her back between Waluigi and Luigi, just rolled her eyes and kicked one of Wario's rolls. Toad started to speak, without letting the expression of hias mouth change. Obviously, he wasn't sleeping. He was thinking.  
  
"Tell me about your castle again, Wario. If you made the bet so long ago, how come you lost it all of a sudden?"  
  
"SHUT UP!!" the boat shook as Wario yelled.  
  
"No, come on. Tell me." Toad calmly taunted him.  
  
"The bookie didn't get me out until last month. I was hoping he couldn't even find the place"  
  
"Who won the castle?" Toad further grinded Wario's nerves.  
  
"Some kid. I don't know his name. Had a rich daddy or something, so they put up a few million dollars for the castle. And… won." Toad knew this story really wasn't going anywhere, so he tried to sleep. 


	7. Sunblock, Beach Towel, Uzi

The small boat landed on Yo'ster Isle. It brushed up along the beach, and the crew got out, making sure not to step in the water. Mario and Peach knew this place well. The others had heard of it, but had never been there. It was a tiny island about half a mile long. Yoshis of all sizes and colors were walking about. A few were chewing on fruit, others were gathered around the starting line, betting on races. Mario looked around for two particular people. Peach and Daisy approached a campfire, where some were sitting on logs. One was sitting in a wood and grass chair. He wore black shades, and sipped juice from a coconut.   
  
"Helooooo, beautiful." he hooted quietly. "I see you brought a friend too this time."  
  
"Buzz off." Daisy scolded.  
  
"I could, but I'm too lazy. Besides, how could I help you if I did that? Scojum told me all about your little predicament. You want a ride to the island?"  
  
"What's in it for you?" Peach asked skeptically.  
  
"Well, ya gotta do something for me." he folded his hands.  
  
"You PERVERT! NO!" Daisy flailed.  
  
"No, no, no. I'm not in the mood for that today. I want something funny. Get your buddies over here." Daisy and Peach walked away slowly to look for the Marios and Toad. Meanwhile, on the other side of the meeting square, Mario and Luigi were meeting up with an old friend.  
  
"So he had his elevators rigged with gas?" the animal asked. Luigi just nodded. "I guess he's gone back to the dark side if he has a place like that." The dinosaur species tossed an apple core into the trash, and soaked his green hands in a hot spring. "Have you figured out where you're going yet?"  
  
"No, Yoshi. That's why we came here." Mario pointed to the other side of the square where Boshi was sitting. Peach, Toad, Wario, Waluigi and Daisy were around Boshi's grass throne.  
  
"You want me to WHAT?" Toad yelled in surprise.  
  
"Do it, mushy mush." Boshi chuckled.  
  
"You've got to be kidding me!" Peach was disgusted, "You can't make him do… that stuff!"  
  
 "You wanna go to the factory? He'll do it and like it!" Boshi ordered. A rare event occurred as Wario stepped in to defend Toad. Not that he cared, mind you, but he sure was curious.  
  
"Wait a second. Why him? What's your deal with Toad?"  
  
"Ehhh…" Boshi shot a look of impersonal cruelty through his sunglasses. "I don't harm chicks. And Italian guys bore me. I've got a thing for the timid guys. This is gonna be a real freak show."  
  
"You're crap, man. The things I do…" Toad trailed off as he grabbed the long white joint from Boshi's blue hand. Boshi laughed hysterically as the smoke crawled out of the tip and into Toad's nostrils, making him cough. Toad closed his eyes tightly, put the other end in his mouth, and inhaled as fast as he could. The smoke hugged the inside of his esophagus and scratched it up nastily. It was Toad's first burn. It was rough. Wario probably wanted to step in for him because it would have been barely anything to him. On top of that, Wari had never thrown up, so he could handle ingesting or inhaling anything. Toad couldn't bear the blow to his system, so he fell on the floor, curled up into the fetal position, and coughed miserably. Peach covered her mouth in disgust and horror, and fire spewed out of Mario and Luigi's eyes. Toad was in way over his head. Boshi laughed and laughed. When Toad was able to kneel up, Mario and Luigi helped him to his feet.  
  
"Alright, you've had your fun, sicko. Now give us directions." Daisy demanded.  
  
"Hey, hey, the kid hasn't shown me the funny yet." Boshi argued innocently. "Now, no deal unless he… finishes the whole thing." Peach shrieked. Yoshi got in Boshi's face.  
  
"Boshi, this time you've gone too far. Now you lay of and-" Yoshi stopped in his words when he saw the brave mushroom man stumble over to the blue boss and grab the evil-smelling herb. He sucked in long and hard. Then, with stern eyes, he repeated it three more times. He tossed the tiny end into the fire and stared Boshi in the face. He wanted to be entertained, so Toad had given that to him.  
  
"I'm… done." Boshi cracked another grin.  
  
"Good job. You've got a gift, ya know? Or you're just stupid."  
  
"This didn't even touch me. Why?" Toad sounded like he had just finished a round with a giant chomp.  
  
"Ten minutes. Let's go." Boshi signified as he removed his shades, revealing his evil red eyes. "I'm going to keep an eye on you myself. Make sure you don't sell me out to the big boys. I know you're not gonna make it through there, so hurry up and get killed.  
  
"In that case, I'll keep an eye on you. Let's go." said Yoshi.  
  
Luigi and Waluigi took a turn at rowing, while Mario and Wario worked the rudder. The ride was pretty silent. It was only about 15 minutes but it felt like a year. They were all in a tropical paradise but that particular Wednesday still felt gray, as if they were still in Flarch. Luigi looked at Daisy. He took a moment to reminisce about how they met. She was a friend of Mario's, and Luigi first saw her after the war against Tatanga when he invaded Sarassaland. At first, he was freaked out by the fact that she had some Koopa DNA in her. But after he talked to her for a few weeks, and started to grow close to her, he knew she was perfect for him. The dress said it all. Not just on her, but on Peach too. They showed that the girls were royalty. Born leaders. Yet the dresses were built to last in battle, just as they had a few times. They were hands-on people. Priceless mates. And then there was Toad. So witty, the way he flopped around. Luigi's thoughts came to a screeching halt. He feared for Toad's life. He stood up and shouted.  
  
"Toad's flopping around!" Luigi was shaken.  
  
"Oh yeah. Let the show begin, boy." Boshi rubbed his hands together.  
  
"Oh, will you just shut up?" Yoshi couldn't take anymore. He got up from assisting Toad and threw a fist across Boshi's snout. He fell on the floor, and another joint fell out of his pocket. Yoshi picked it up and ripped the tip open. He examined the color and characteristics of the leaves. A look of fear struck his face. He shook Mario's shoulder.  
  
"Mario… this is Boshi's special hybrid!"  
  
"So," Mario was busy trying to help Toad calm down, "what's that mean?"  
  
Yoshi's voice quivered. "There's about a fifty fifty chance he could die." Things were going from bad to worse. A rocking boat had nine people in it, one of them was drugged to a dangerous level, two of which were ready to tear each others' throats out, and another six of which had to cope with this while bringing down a poison flower operation in the next hour. "If he stays alive, he'll still be toasted for the next five hours. He doesn't even know where or who he is now, so he needs to stay in the boat. Peach and Daisy, you need to watch him. Boshi's not going anywhere." Boshi was out cold, bleeding from the mouth and nose. "Alright, guys, let's get in there." Yoshi nodded to the four Marios.  
  
"Erm…" Wario was confused. But after thinking about it for a minute, he realized the only thing different was that Toad had been knocked off, and Peach and Daisy had to stay behind.   
  
"Alright, now this is what's happening." Yoshi assumed the position of the leader. "Boshi says he called the place, talked to someone on the inside and arranged for four plumbers and a Yoshi to come in and fix a bunch of leaks in the east wing. We're gonna go in there, state the business, then sneak off and steal some uniforms. After that, I'll get outside and check on the others. While you're in there, do whatever you can to stop these guys. I'll be ready to make a getaway. Got it?"  
  
A short pause. "Let's go gettem." Waluigi broke the scilence. The five victims walked toward the front door, and pushed the large metal panel open. There were two red-shelled troopas in black helmets, carrying machine guns. Mario approached one of them nervously.  
  
"We're the plumbers, we're here for the-"  
  
A troopa spoke up assertively, as if he had planned something. "Right, we've been expecting you. Get outside, you're going for a ride." he knocked Mario's stomach in with the barrel of his gun. At that exact moment, all five of them knew exactly what had happened. They wanted to get in and have a slight chance of stopping the production, all for different reasons. Mario and Luigi wanted to save the Mushroom Kingdom, not to mention other regions from potential downfall. Wario and Waluigi wanted to do a halfway decent job and fly home to a fat invoice by Friday. Yoshi was an activist all about toppling troublemakers. When he was younger, he found a little baby on his home island, whom he had to protect from thousands of cases of certain death, just to reunite him with his twin brother. Ever since then, he'd had a hard-on for giving a nice kick in the gut to anyone who put other people in danger. About thirty years later he met Mario, and he'd been in cahoots with him ever since. Needless to say, he blew his top when he heard about this whole operation. But there was one thing they all had in common with regard to the death mission. They knew it was crap. On the surface, there was no reason the men couldn't do it, and they really wanted to. But in the back of their minds they knew about a million ways it could have gone wrong. This was one of them. In short, they were sold out. By Boshi. They didn't need an explanation to figure that one out. Boshi had a message sent to the factory. "A Yoshi, the retainer of the Mushroom Kingdom, two princesses, and four agents from Mushroom are coming to sabotage you. Capture them and do what you will with them. And pay me off."  
  
As Wario's were being cuffed behind his back, he did something that was slightly inappropriate for the particular moment the Marios were in. "Ahem, I think I speak for both my little brother and I when I say we're pulling out of this stupid mission." Mario just looked at the floor in stress. Too much was going on for him to want to respond. Wario pretended that he did anyway. "No, I'm serious. I can't take anymore of this bull crap." He talked as if he were a little kid who was proclaiming he was quitting school. "I mean, I'm surprised I made it this far. I can't stand people staying in my house, I can't stand being thrown in jail while I could be gambling, I can't stand stupid rich bitches and the little peanut terd who won't shut up unless you drug him to death, I can't stand flying, and most of all, I can't stand YOU! You two annoy me to no end! RRAAAGH!" Those were Wario's last words to Mario and Luigi before he was hauled off with his brother to some unknown place. Wario and Waluigi had been calm and patient with the cousins they had hated their entire lives, but it only went so far.  
  
"And don't ask to stay in our apartment again! Wrah!" screamed Waluigi as he threw one of his lanky legs in the air. Two paratroopers violently held Mario and Luigi's wrists behind their backs and yanked them outside. The thick black gloves of their uniforms felt like death, even more so than the gun barrels jammed into their backs. As they stumbled past the beach they landed on, Luigi noticed that the boat was empty and drifting away. Toad and the princesses were gone. A green-shelled troopa stopped the men as they headed toward a vehicle.  
  
"New orders. We're taking the Yoshi, the fat one and the stick to the HQ, but he doesn't want these two going any further. Just kill them here." A bad feeling sank to the bottom of Mario's stomach. He'd felt this before, but each time it was different. One of the troopas popped in a magazine of bullets and stuck the gun on auto-fire. He lazily swept it across Mario's left shin first, just to hear him scream. Mario fell on the floor with three holes in his shin, screaming hysterically. A million knives had just stabbed him in the leg. Luigi's face quivered with hatred and fear. Blood sputtered out and stained his pant leg. The troopa but the barrel to Mario's forehead and began to squeeze. Suddenly, the troopa's face turned bright purple, bright green, and bright orange, all in about a third of a second. A high-pitched whirl turned the sky black and the sand dark blue. A thick column of hyper-brilliant light knocked through both troopas, shattered their skeletons, and disintegrated their skin. The sky and ground returned to normal and before the Mario brothers lay two carcasses of the guards that were about to kill them. Mario lay still on the ground with sweat on his forehead and his eyes wide open. Luigi was a statue, standing over him. Mario looked down and remembered he had just been shot in the leg with an assault rifle. He began to wail again. He felt ocean mist falling upon it. He looked to see it wasn't ocean mist at all. It was water falling straight down that gleamed a soothing turquoise. It was the complete opposite of acid rain. The blood stain vanished from his pants, and the wound closed up. He looked up to see that the rain was coming from a tiny cloud with a smiley face on it. The cloud disappeared as its master came out from behind a crate and pulled off a black mask. The man who created the psychokinetic energy field climbed out of a barrel and removed his mask as well. They fit the description of the two guys that busted Wario and Waluigi out of Goomba's Greedy Gala.  
  
Luigi had never met these two, but Mario had traveled around the world with them. The one who took out the soldiers was made of wood. He had a red blue cape and a blue hood over his brown head. His nose was small and red. The boy who showered Mario's wound had pants with blue and white stripes and a large belt. He was short, round, and shirtless. His skin was yellow and his small patch of hair was pink. The wooden man gave a short bow and the yellow boy smiled.  
  
"Mario, I've… I've returned to Earth. The world needs my help again." the man in blue shook Mario's hand.  
  
"As Prince of Nimbus Land, and an experienced fighter, it's my duty to do anything I can to help the man who saved my kingdom." said the short boy in a brave and young voice.  
  
"Luigi," Mario said slowly, "these are the guys I told you about after I fought Smithy. This is Prince Mallow of Nimbus Land, and Geno, caretaker of the Star Road. 


	8. Sweet Dreams

Chapter 8-Sweet Dreams  
  
He was on a train. A second later, he was sitting in a dumpster. Half a second earlier, he had been in a coffee house on the moon. Time didn't have any meaning. The scared loner in the strange new world shivered. Orange hail was raining sideways out of the window of a tall building, and landing on the purple wall across the street. Toad was standing in front of the hotel he had stayed at in Flarch. A muffled and slow techno beat played in the background, coming seemingly from nowhere. It was so low it was hard to say whether it was his heartbeat or actual music that was coming from everywhere and nowhere. A taxi threw up on the street, and a McDonald's exploded. A newborn baby ran down the street with a can of salt in his hand. Toad was exhausted. He couldn't bring himself to do anything to turn his head to the left to look at his boss through half-closed eyes. The Chancellor had a flaming mustache. His robe had holes in it. They glowed with white light. The green spots on his head were brown and pink. The man had no eyes. He stood tall and rigid as a statue. He was silent, but the noise was killing Toad's ears. The Chancellor spoke up.  
  
"Toad, what's happened?" he said, as his mouth moved very slowly, and the pitch of his voice changed several times. Toad's hand felt like it was on fire. He looked at it and his finger grew to the size of a pickle. His whole hand fell off. The stump closed up neatly, and all Toad was able to do was stand there and watch the other repeat the process without saying a word. "Toad, what's happened? Toad, what's happened?" The Chancellor's face got blurrier and blurrier with each repetition. Toad's jaw dropped as he slowly dropped to his knees. He stared at a manhole as millions of empty black identical cars sat in a four-way intersection and faced him. He hadn't noticed until now, but the noise had fled, the sky had turned an empty white, and everything was still. There were no people and no trash around. Out of fear, Toad darted to the left and tried to run. All he could do was hobble to the slow beat of the music that was being spit out of the air. He hung his head, and the sight in the corners of his eyes turned to blind spots. He lifted his head and walked into a phone booth. For some reason, he felt like he was lying down the whole time.  
  
"No, you guys. You can't... keep doing this. It isn't... right."  
  
"Toad, what's happened?" The Chancellor repeated. The Chancellor was far away, but his voice was right next to Toad's ears.  
  
"Not... right." Toad's voice echoed off the airwaves. He wandered away with his arms drooping. He sat in the middle of a four-way intersection. Something was wrong. There were about a million identical and empty cars lined up stopped at the red lights. They were all pointed at Toad. There wasn't a sound at all. No cars, no people, no birds, no insects. Toad let sweat pour out onto his forehead. His hands fell off again. Out of fear, he darted to the side. He ran down the sidewalk, studying the cracks on the ground. "I have to get out of here! What do I do?" Not even knowing his own frame of mind, Toad tried to lift his head enough so that he could see what he was walking into. This was a dangerous move, since he needed one of his eyes to monitor the moving sidewalk. He stepped into the phone booth. It was very roomy. Eerily roomy. He put in three gold coins and started to dial the number of the Chinese restaurant he liked to order from about once a week.  
  
"Golden Mushroom, may I help you?" the phone asked Toad. The phone was talking to him. It also sounded like English was the phone's second language. Now Toad had seen just about everything. "Golden Mushroom, may I help you?" Although someone had already answered, Toad still heard the rhythm of the ringing tone. Frightened, he lazily put the phone back on the hook and wandered off like a child with ADD. What he was feeling now was indescribable. He was in another world created by his own mind. Everything was different. His take on life was temporarily changed. He couldn't stop his arms from moving. He passed Wario and Waluigi's apartment. But it wasn't above a bar. It was a tree house. Without the tree. It was a wooden cube hanging off the side of Goomba's greedy Gala. A tear fell from Toad's eye, and he started to sprint down the sidewalk. A haunting piano tune played. Toad ran faster. He stopped using his feet. The sky turned red and flaming rocks fell from the sky.  
  
"Toad, be strong! We're going in!" The sky turned bright green and started to rain acid.  
  
"Toad! It'll be okay. Try to rest! Don't leave the girls!" The sky then showed a mixture of pink and light orange. Every brick on every building shone with the infinite light of false hope.  
  
"TOOOOOAD! SAVE US!" The sky turned back to white. The black identical cars returned. They weren't moving at all, but the drivers still had barely enough time to yell at Toad from their windows. Toad started counting, just to try to get a grip on things.  
  
"One, two, three..." Every time he moved his mouth, the rest of the world moved with it. He couldn't stop himself from counting. He took a look to the center of the city. He noticed that in this neo version of Flarch, Goobma's casino was no longer the tallest building. Behind it stood a thick black skyscraper. The higher Toad looked, the more spikes and turrets he could see mounted into the sides. At the top, he saw an interruption of the white sky. There was a sharp swirl of red and black. It was intimidating and ominous. He stumbled across the street, tripped over a fold in space and fell down fifty feet into the lobby of a building. His old buddy from high school was sitting on the couch.  
  
"Dude, where have you been?" Scott was surprised that Toad was so late. "I've been waiting for you for like, twenty minutes, man. What the crap?"  
  
"I-I'm sorry." Toad stammered. He stared blankly at Scott for a few minutes. After the pause, Scott just directed him.  
  
"Just get upstairs. I think some people are looking for you." As if on cue, a few pink and blue Goombas knocked Toad on his face, hoisted him up onto their heads, and carried him to the elevator. They dumped him in and the doors snapped shut. Toad heard his own voice in the elevator music. He'd had just about enough of this. Although, he wasn't exactly sure what any of this was. He was having a hard time remembering his own name. He feared for his life at the moment, but he was thinking about other things, like whether or not the Mushroom HQ was finally going to give him a laptop computer to work with. He danced lazily around the elevator. Toad knew that from the second he started counting, he kept doing it consistently and quickly. But somehow, he was only on five. From this, he concluded that in the world he was in now, time had no meaning or powers whatsoever.  
  
The elevator finally opened at floor one hundred. Toad approached out and noticed he was standing on the swirl of fire and steam over the top of the building. The white sky was no longer there. Instead, the entire thing was a swishing mixture of dark blue, purple, black, and yellow.  
  
"Having a bad dream! Heh heh. probably about getting fired. Wreh heh heh!" A boiling deeper voice accompanied the cold high-pitched one.  
  
"Yeah! Got his wallet! Wah hah hah! Guess you're stuck with these guys forever!" Not knowing what that meant, Toad just brushed it off. The sky faded into black nothingness. The cloud Toad was standing on settles into a white mist. Four giant tulips shot out from within. Toad was exhausted, and too tired to feel afraid of anything anymore. Just then, a familiar entity materialized in from of him. He was a white, silky ball of ectoplasm. He was perfectly round except for his short stubby arms, his sharp gnashing teeth, and the short trail left by his floating body that resembled a tail. He wasn't wearing his usual crown. He wanted to appear only as what he was. As a representative to his people. He had small black eyes that almost looked cute and innocent. However, those who knew him for more than about twelve seconds could sense he had a much more hideous agenda. This otherworldly creature was the leader of its kind, and not one to be toyed with.  
  
"Boo!" snapped the ghost. Toad held back as much of the faint flinch as he could. He lifted his head and neck so he was standing up straight. He yawned, and his mouth stretched to five times its normal size. He finally responded to the spirit's attempt.  
  
"Yeah. That's your name. What's your point?" The numb audacity of the mere mortal mushroom made Boo furious. He slapped Toad's face hard. The bone-chilling cold that came from Boo's hand only had begun to compare to his true potential.  
  
"Don't get cute with ME, lab rat! When these men are finished with you, I'll take care of you PERSONALLY! Once and for all!" There was one noticeable thing that separated Boo and his underlings, the Boo Crew, from the rest of the monsters and fiends that were known to, from time to time, act in support of the Koopa family, the Smithy Gang, and their own selfish interests. It was that Boos have control beyond death. People see a piranha plant and are afraid of the sharp teeth. People see a Boo and fear having their soul literally eaten. By harnessing the spirit of a deceased Goomba, King Boo was created by the Koopa Magic Department in the early nineties and was named their greatest scientific breakthrough. Boo was placed in a house called Boo's Mansion where further experiments were conducted on it. It never needed to eat or sleep, but it got stronger by consuming the souls of its prey. Luckily, this was a rare event thanks to the Mario brothers, and no one had to worry much about the Boos, especially after the mini-war that Luigi and Professor E. Gadd won against them. More and different types were fashioned, but they eventually broke off and became an independent group of evil beings, employed by power-hungry madmen, and still headed by the original Boo. Aside from assisting the invasion of Dinosaur Land and taking hostages in Peach's castle, they were never able to stray far from the abandoned Boo's Mansion, their home of power. Now, it seemed they were up to something new, and Toad decided to counter that by being an outright smartass.  
  
Two more Boos crawled out of King Boo's sides. They were large and red. They floated quietly and slowly behind Toad. They grabbed his arms and held them lightly in place. King Boo pulled himself up to Toad. "Lots of things kill. Only I can harm beyond that." Toad flailed his large headpiece.  
  
"Only your MOTHER can harm beyond. your mother. man!" Toad shook a clumsy finger of accusation. Boo nodded in recognition at Toad's attempt. He floated upward and dissolved out of the area. The four mammoth tulips that had been standing in front of Toad for the past three hours fell over lightly and flared their petals. Toad's absent fear returned. Out of each flower jogged an overly sized Frog-Gog troopa. Four behemoth meatheads were ready to massacre Toad beyond repair. Toad forgot to breathe. The scenery around him began to change again. The cloud shook violently, and the entire sky turned to television static. It was bleak, vivid and frightening. It looked like. well, nothing. No one's ever seen something as intensely mind-blowing as a sky of static. The buildings underneath flashed like malfunctioning Christmas lights. The more things changed, and the more Toad didn't change one bit, the less he felt he fit in. One of the Frog-Gogs made the first move and struck Toad across the face with a crude wooden club. He couldn't do anything about it, as the red Boo guards were still holding him. As Toad felt the inside of his cheek get crushed against his teeth, he saw and felt the whole world shake with it. His blood tasted like duck. His nausea felt like victory. Suddenly, his wrists inflated. They did this so quickly that it scared the Boos off for good. Another Frog-Gog elbowed Toad in the stomach. The whites of his eyes turned dark blue, and his pupils glowed with white light. Toad's shape hadn't changed once in this trip to the highly unorthodox world. His body decided to fix that. Toad felt like he was going to vomit. He did just that, But nothing came out of his mouth. Instead, he felt his entire body coarse with energy, like his mind and spirit were exploding. His height expanded to fifty feet in about three seconds. His teeth gnashed and his limbs whipped through the air. Tentacles grew out of him. His much deeper voice surprised him when he spoke for the final time.  
  
"You. can't. keep doing this. to me!" Whether it had any meaning, Toad knew not. All he knew was that he was now fighting a winning battle. On a broader note, he had just learned that he was fighting any battle at all. He knocked his muscular arms onto the ground made off vapor. This sent the four soldiers flying in different directions to the ends of the planet. Toad panted, and he slowly deflated. His clothes returned to normal, and the world around him disappeared for the last time. He closed his eyes. He woke up. He was free.  
  
The psychedelic version of Flarch was gone. The frightening version of the Chancellor ceased to exit. King Boo and his men were defeated. Toad remembered who he was. He spoke to himself softly, just to check himself. "I am Toad. Retainer of the Mushroom Kingdom. Servant to Princess Peach. Friend to the Mario Brothers. Bothered by the other Mario brothers. Significant other to Toadette." He was Toad again. He was happy. He was back on Earth. His wallet was gone, along with his money, his castle and headquarters keycard, and all other ID. Still, it was better than being mutilated by Frog-Gogs and then consumed by King Boo himself. He grabbed a towel that was next to him and wiped what was on his mouth. "Guess I did throw up a little." He could barely remember what exactly had happened. But he remembered it as something concrete and real. Had he tried to piece together the fact that it was all a dream, he would have fallen unconscious again. He had long since forgotten that it was Boshi that did this to him. He looked at the clock. It was four. A harmless time. He looked outside. The beach looked nice, and the sky was blue. A harmless atmosphere. He looked around him. The four Frog-Gogs were lying in chairs, perfectly still, sleeping, with electrodes attached to their ears. King Boo was in a large cylindrical tube, floating in suspended animation with his eyes closed. Now that Toad was awake, he noticed the two large metal clamps chewing on his ears. He lazily but carefully removed them with a gentle yank. He looked across the top of the wall opposite the window. There was a mirror. A badly placed one. It was about four feet high and twelve feet across. It was a mirror you couldn't look into unless you were about nine feet tall. Toad had seen this type of mirror before. It was a device far removed from what he was used to, but he knew what it was. To his surprise, along with his expectation, the mirror coughed. They were watching him. It was a one-way mirror. Toad sort of knew where he was, but in his state of mind, he knew thinking about it wouldn't make a difference so long as he got the hell out of there as fast as he could. He wobbled out the door, and looked for an exit.  
  
As Toad ran down the impersonally threatening hallway, he remembered why he wasn't remembering anything. Boshi forced the marijuana onto him, and it pushed him into an incomprehensibly weird dream. Toad was temporarily but seriously messed up, but he didn't care. He would return to normal by the end of the day. For now, he was having trouble making decisions past the complexity of what foot to put in front of him.  
  
Things didn't look as they were supposed to. Granted, Toad had never been here before, but his outlook on everything was just cut and dry. Like everything was in a straight line. A point vs. B point. He saw a door at the end of the hallway that was quickly narrowing. Although the text said "MAIN POWER, DO NOT ENTER" the sign itself was screaming, "What are you waiting for? Get in here!" Toad twisted the knob. He lifted up his headpiece to wipe the sweat off his head. The panel was decorated with many knobs and buttons, but Toad knew what he had to do. Actually, he had no idea it was what he had to do, but it seemed like the most helpful thing that he could have done all day. He grabbed the lever marked "EMERGENCY POWER SHUTOFF" and yanked down. The aging, rusted, and unused lever squealed with a creak. The sound of a massive switch was heard. The sound of computers whirring, lights humming, and machines running all slowed to an eerie halt. Everything went black. This time, Toad was still awake. He couldn't see because the lights were off. The building was in a coma. Toad had won. 


	9. Checking In

Chapter 9-Checking In  
  
"AHG!!! Wario Mario! Flarch! Now cut it out!" The fat man in yellow was tied up by his arms in shackles next to his younger brother. His ankles were tightly bound to the floor. It didn't take much to get him to say his name and location. The troopa moved to the next victim, and stood behind him. Waluigi, who was also tied by his hands and feet, thought that he would be able to tough it out unlike his brother, but he was utterly wrong.  
  
"Name and town." he said very impersonally.  
  
"Cram it." Waluigi shot back, without so much as lifting his devilish eyes from the cracked tile floor. Without thinking, he swayed his midsection to the left. The whip missed him by a few inches. The troopa flogged immediately again. This time, Waluigi used the momentum to move his sticklike figure to the right. The troopa solved this by whipping horizontally while repeating,  
  
"Name and town." The leather rope cracked against his back. He let out a long yelp.  
  
"YAAAGH! Waluigi Mario! Same house as him! Flacrh!" The troopa scribbled down information on a little notepad, then left the room, locking the door tight. Wario and Waluigi kept their initial looks of careessness and apathy.  
  
"That's it, no more." Wario decided. "Our last job is to get out of here and have a beer."  
  
"Hrmm..." Waluigi hardly felt like talking.  
  
Across the hall, two other Italian men were being squeezed for information. They were also being fed horrible information.  
  
"OW! OW! 437, Mushroom Way, Toadtown, Mushroom Kingdom! Both of us!" Mario shouted, trying to quench the punishment.  
  
"I've got one more question for you lunatics. I understand that part about breaking into Goomba's casino, trying to get into the flower factory, and having a wooden guy in a blue dress kill two of our men, but why were you carrying around an autistic mushroom with you?"  
  
"The hell you talking about?" Mario asked through clenched teeth. The pain in his back was still shooting.  
  
"Toad." Luigi offered with exhaustion. "He means Toad. No, man, Toad's not--" The troopa with the whip closed his eyes and waved his hands with impatience. 's toward the edge,  
"I... I don't care. Reatrd, stoner, whatever. Deformed in some way, that's all we need. Had a lot of THC in his system, but a hell of a lot of good that did for him, huh?" he chuckled negatingly. "He's over in the building next to this one."  
  
Mario remembered his current condition, and pleaded. "Oh... you... you guys need to get him some medical attention. He could die!" This was a rather dumb request for Mario to make of his own enemies.  
  
"Forget it. By the time the experiment's done, he'll be dead. At least he will be if the guys we send in do everything right." The troopa shrugged.  
  
"Experiment? Dead!? What's going on?" Luigi screamed, "Tell me now, asshole!"  
  
"Dream technology. That's all you need to know. Byebye for now, kids." The guard walked out and closed the door, leaving the room pitch black. The two pairs of Marios had no idea that the others were across the hall in the same type of prison. After what felt like forever, and Mario and Luigi had been stewing in infinite trauma, the metal door squeaked open again. Two Boo soldiers undid their shackles, and pulled them out of the cell. They led them to a room with two crude chairs with straps on them.  
  
A few hours later, a van sped down a street that sounded awkwardly familiar. Wario and Waluigi were blindfolded, gagged, and tied. It rolled to a stop and the engine turned off. The door open letting piercing white light in. Two men yanked the blindfolds off of Wario and Waluigi. They looked across the back of the van to see two women. Their hair was scraggled, their eyes were tired and scratched, and their skirts were torn. Peach and Daisy had been kidnapped and crammed in the same van as Wario and Waluigi. The two brothers sighed in annoyance. One of the two men in the front seats started to explain the situation like a bus driver.  
  
"Alright guys, we can't make a huge scene keeping you on the island, so we've placed the block under martial law. And don't worry, the boss practically owns this half of the city, so this won't draw much attention." Waluigi just rolled his eyes.  
  
"Now we needed somewhere really small, inconspicuous, and crappy, so we just picked a house that got abandoned yesterday. It's toward the edge of the city, so no one's gonna come look here. Go upstairs, walk in the front door, sit on the couch, and don't even think ahout leaving for at least a week. When we're everything's said and done, you're coming back to headquarters. The boss has got special plans for you. You're being watched, so don't pull anything. And when you get out of this vehicle, you'll have eyes on you at all times. So stay quiet." He and the other man ungagged and untied the four, and snapped his fingers. As calmly and silently as they could, Wario, Peach, Daisy, and Waluigi stepped out onto the sidewalk. As they crossed the street, Daisy thought about the situation. Guns were pointed at them from essentially every direction. The last time she and Peach saw these two was when they were yelling at eachother on a tiny boat hundreds of miles away. Now, they were back in Flarch City, forced to cross the street together, without saying a word. They were right next to eachother and couldn't communicate. They all had to protect eachother by doing absolutely nothing. The scared victims took a look at the residence they had been dropped off at. It was a tiny place above a bar. It had black metal stairs, with a few missing. By sheer concidence, Wario and Waluigi were going to be hostages is their own home. Wario knew it was going to take a while to get the princesses to believe this. The group walked the rickety metal stairs to the apartment. Waluigi thought to himself that two guys walking in with two ratty-lookng girls was going to look like a double hooker deal. Wario gingerly pushed the door open, and the other three proceeded to quietly follow him inside.  
  
The two brothers hung their hats on the rack near the door, and flopped down into two armchairs. Peach and Daisy sank to the couch, physically and mentally beat.  
  
"So..." Waluigi whispered, with his hands folded and his body still, "how was your day?" That did it. A tear fell from Peach's eye, and she buried her face into her hands. She silently cried, wishing her hero was there with her. Her shoulders moved up and down with the rhythm of her hypervenalating lungs. Daisy kept herself strong, and made an attempt to confort Peach with her hand. Wario pulled out a wallet. It was one he had found somewhere while trying to escape from the complex he was taken to, before he and his brother were caught again. He opened it, and flipped through the cards. Blockbuster, Texaco, photo ID. There was a picture of Toad on the ID. Daisy spotted this, and Wario cauht a look of surprise and anger from her. The look Wario returned said to Daisy asked her "So, what's your point?" She got up and snatched it from Wario's hand, stuffing it into her dress. She sat back down, slouched, and folded her arms. There was nothing left to do. They all felt like they in first grade were sitting outside the principal's office, waiting for their first tougne lashing. Wario and Waluigi were the two apathetic boys, Daisy was the disappointed tomboy, and Peach was the girl who broke down in tears. It was all so perfectly morbid.  
  
A few more moments of dead silence passed.  
  
"This is stupid." Waluigi said in a refreshingly audible tone. "I know they bugged our house, but I don't care."  
  
"Your house? This is... your house?" Peach regained herself.  
  
"Alright. I'll get them." Wario stood up and walked to the back of the kitchen. He opened the oven and pulled out a metal box. "We were supposed to rob the bank with these. Guess that plan's out." He pulled out two tiny Bob-ombs. They were light, plastic, and seemingly innocent.  
  
"Those look like Burger King toys." Daisy stared at them.  
  
"Yeah. Toys. Check this out." He placed one at the foot of the door and flipped a tiny switch. He patted the top of his television, and planted a kiss on the top of it. Waluigi kicked the wall.  
  
"Dammit! We'll never see this stuff again."  
  
"Better believe it, man." Wario put the second Bob-omb on top of a cieling fan blade and armed that one as well. "Goodbye crap apartment, hello fat insurance check." The brothers grabbed their hats off of the rack and ran to the tiny bathroom. Peach and Daisy hesitantly followed. Waluigi moved a wastebasket from beside the toilet and lifted a piece of the floor. Peach was shocked to see that the hole led to the stall of yet another bathrooom. Luckily, that stall was empty. Waluigi hopped down the narrow chute, and landed with his feet on the rim of the open toilet. Wario did the same, but with a lot less agility. Peach and Daisy made their way down slowly and safely, illiciting gripes and groans from Wario and Waluigi. Nervous, Wario went to the sink and threw water onto his face.  
  
"Two minutes, thirty seconds." he notified the group.  
  
"Oh my... two and thirty till what?" Peach sounded terrified. She was less terrified than she should have been. Wario wiped water from his mouth.  
  
"Get to the back of the kitchen." Daisy and Peach looked at him in confusion and fear. "DO IT!" he ordered. The two ran out of the grimy bathroom, and followed the command. The cheating liars ran out into the bar area. Wario unplugged the running jukebox, and Waluigi got up onto a table.  
  
"BOMB! THERE'S A BOMB IN HERE! EVERYONE OUT!" Waluigi did his duty to evacuate people from the building he was blowing up. After that, he hopped down, ran to the back of the kitchen, and he, along with Wario, grabbed the girls and ran. They ran straight back from the building, not turning. This way, they stayed out of sight of their captors. On the opposite side, people fled into the streets and sped away in their cars. The four stood on a street corner and watched the bar and their home explode in what would have been a fiery ball of fire and death.  
  
"Heh, we just saved about a hundred lives." Wario folded his arms in triumph.  
  
"But you blew that place up!" Daisy yelled for the first time in a while, rather annoyed.  
  
"Hey, shut up!" Waluigi argued. "Okay, now that those guys think we're dead, I guess that's that. See ya around."  
  
"Wait, wait!" Peach chased after Waluigi like a little girl. "What about us? You're just leaving us? What about the black flowers, the Marios, the... the..."  
  
"Forget it. We're out of this mission. We're goin' to our dad's house. We need a place to stay, and we promised we'd fix his toilet last week. And we need to get away from where these stuis Musheads aren't gonna try to send us on these stupid death rides anymore."  
  
"Oh, well now. How heroic of you. Guess we'll just have to walk!" Daisy said with her hands on her hips and her eyes narrowed. The group stood on the edge of the city they knew they couldn't go back to. The highway was one way, and a fresh-looking field free of pollution lay the other.  
  
"It's almost six, and I'm starving! All I had to eat was that crappy leftover pie at the hotel this morning. We're gonna hit the McDonald's a few miles down the road. Don't follow us." Wario spat his last words at the girls.  
  
"This is it for us! We're done!" Waluigi declared. They turned and started to hitchhike, and the two princesses stood, pouting. They did all that they could do. They started to make their way across the wide field and small forest in order to get to the next town before dark.  
  
Two strong Troopas lifted their axes. The dim lightbulbs flickered. The captured Marios were tied loosely to wooden chairs. The Boos were poised to finish the job after Mario and Luigi were dead. All they needed was a few seconds to break the rope, and they could have made their escape. But they didn't have even that. They had nothing left. Their lived had about four seconds remaining on them.  
  
As the Troopas were getting ready to swing, everything went black. A computerized female voice sounded. "EMERGENCY SHUTDOWN ACTIVATED!" The reflexes kicked in, and Mario and Luigi kicked the men in front of them. Their axes fell, and the brothers snapped the ropes that were holding them. They bolted for the open door, and turned left down a hallway. It was lit with infrared lights, but they were barely enough to guide them. At last, they found an exit, and kicked open the door. Before them lay a sunset beach, and a green dinosaur. Yoshi had a soldier on his back trying to choke him. He gave him an elbow in the nose and brushed him off. Over at the building a few yards away, a door busted open, and a chemically altered Toad stumbled out.  
  
"I did it, I won! I DID IT, MAN! I let Yoshi out too!" he fell down face first on the ground. Luigi picked him up.  
  
"Ya sure did, buddy! You shut the power off?" he brushed sand off Toad's face and Toad just grumbled. Yoshi grabbed the attention of the three and motioned for them to hop on. They boarded his sattle, and Yoshi ran to a small dock. He jumped into a speedboat, and grabbed the cord to the motor in back. Troopas bursted out of the factory and charged the boat, firing their weapons. Yoshi pulled once. They got closer. He yanked a second time. A bullet wizzed past Mario's head. Yoshi let out the third charm and the motor roared to life. Luigi put it on full throttle, and took off.  
  
After setting a quick course and getting away from the island, the group was headed back to Mushroom Kingdom. Toad held a large envelope in his hands. 


	10. Reconnection

Luckily, they weren't wearing their full dresses. The skirts and sneakers were fit for travel, but maintained the trademark pink and yellow. Peach thought deeply as she climbed over the guardrail and descended the miniature valley of soft grass and soil. Going back up, into a thin layer of trees, Daisy hummed her favorite Bob Dylan song to keep herself from exploding. After leaving the city, traversing the highways, and making it to the other side of the forest, the princesses had covered about a full mile. They didn't want to follow the men who had abandoned them, and they couldn't turn back to Flarch. Their only option was to keep on through the unknown fields. The grass turned to dirt trails. The dirt turned to hard rock. There was no beautiful sunset to denote the end of the day. The polluted sky turned from light dull blue to dark dull blue. The cold of the breeze and the unfocussedness of objects crept upon the girls as night came. Their medium skirts and slightly revealing shirts were letting their guard down against the irritation that came even with summer nights. Finally, as the sky settled to a clear and starry black, something broke their trip.  
  
A castle. It was a strong and rectangular castle. The moon had come out, and its light was so strong that it cast a backlight on the edifice. Only the two torches at the front door could be seen. Behind the castle was a high precipice over a roaring ocean. The ground in the front yard was hard as a parking lot. Obviously, the princesses were reluctant when they intruded. They stood with rubber knees on the front porch. Daisy lifted the knocker and banged it lightly against the door a few times. It echoed loudly. Promptly, the rubber in their knees turned to jelly. There was a fat-looking W hanging over the double doors. Also, on each side of the door, there was a gold statue depicting a familiar man striking pretentious poses.  
  
"Wario's..." Peach went lightheaded. "If he finds out we were here, he'll get us for sure!" Daisy's vision darted in different directions, looking for a bush to hide in. Wario was long gone, but they were still afraid of his dwelling. Something clicked in Daisy's head and she let a smile erupt.  
  
"Hey Peeeach. Wario doesn't live here anymore." Diasy said in a singsong voice.  
  
"But..." Peach said with glassy eyes and her hands at her cheeks. Daisy covered Peach's mouth with one finger.  
  
"He lost it to a bookie. Remember?" Peach's face grew to match Daisy's. She shrieked with joy and jumped up and down. Then, she thought.  
  
"So, I wonder who-" she turned her head to the door as it creaked open. They saw a girl they hadn't met in quite a while.  
  
The new owner of Wario's castle was a lot like Yoshi, while at the same time quite different from him. As said before, Yoshi was an activist, and this girl was an entrepreneur. Her hands and feet had white reptilian claws, and her pink skin was fine and smooth. She had a large circle of white in the area of her belly and chest. A large red bow decorated the top of her head. Her eyelids were shadowed with purple, and her lashes batted when she blinked. She had a large diamond ring on her finger and a round funnel-like mouth. Like Yoshi, she was born about twenty years before the Marios, but still was the equivalent to a teenager due to the great longevity of the two species. Like the Yoshis her species had many different types. Plain pink, burning red and green, ice blue. But, she was just a plain pink female. She served the foreign dictator Wart as the matriarchal leader of her kind. She also helped Bowser, King of the Koopa. She was experienced in foreign relations and fighting. But for now, she had become very independent. She sparked a relationship with Yoshi and took time to work on her golfing and racing skills. Despite her prominence, she never lost the little girl look of innocence and young charm. It was by coincidence that she won Wario's castle in a high-rolling bet. Peach and Daisy were shocked.  
  
"What's going on, cuties?" She greeted the girls with delight.  
  
"BIRDO?!" Daisy and Peach nearly fell over.  
  
The princesses waited in the living room while Birdo was in the kitchen fetching three cosmopolitans. The couches they sat on were pink and yellow. The thick flaming torches on the walls were now calm candles and chandeliers. The center Wario statue was now a coffee table with a vase of roses on it. Every inch of the evil castle was changed. The walls were still black and gold, but the wood finished banisters and new lighting and smell was clearly feminine. Peach and Daisy didn't even need to say it. They smiled at each other quietly thinking about what Wario and Walugi would say if they saw their home like this. Birdo came out and set the drinks on the table. Daisy picked hers up and sniffed it. Birdo chuckled.  
  
"Daisy, don't be afraid. I don't answer to those criminals anymore. I wouldn't hurt you."  
  
"So... what happened? What have you been doing?" Peach had a hard time catching up with all of this. She still couldn't forget the time Birdo almost broke her nose with a high-speed compact egg, right before she threw Birdo off a cliff. What she said in response made Peach think her mind was being read.  
  
"Well... the first thing I did was clear my head. I couldn't go on with the things I had done and tried to do. I made my peace with the Marios, the people of Mushroom Kingdom, Sarassaland, and the world leaders." It made sense to Peach now. Birdo had written her a letter of formal apology about a year after what had happened, but she didn't take it very seriously. She thought Birdo was only trying to get into the good graces of anyone with clout. Now, she realized Birdo was sincere in what she said. Peach just sat and listened further. "I took a trip to Yo'Ster Isle. Part of it was because I served as an ambassador for Mushroom for a short time. I was also there for vacation. That's where I met Yoshi. He made me the woman I am today." Peach and Daisy were dazzled by Birdo's story. They were proud of her, yet they also envied her benevolence, discipline, and success. "And... as I think you already now, this is Wario's castle. I won it when I bet on the fate of Dinosaur Land. Of course, it took years to find it since the address Wario submitted was fake, and he left only a photograph of his home. The only thing left to change is the outside. I can't stand looking at those stupid statues. But, I won't bore you with my life story any further. Please, tell me if there's anything I can do to help you."  
  
"Okay. We aren't really sure," Daisy explained, "if there's anything you can do to help us at the moment, but we'll explain to you what's been going on since yesterday. See, these black flowers popped up in the main castle town of Mushroom Kingdom, Toadtown, and everyone had to be evacuated. We got put in a hotel in Flarch, and we heard from an investigation team that Mouser's men were growing the flowers at Goomba's Greedy Gala. We decided Peach, Toad, and I were going to need to figure out a way to stop it." Peach finished the story with the new details.  
  
"We talked to Waluigi last night around midnight, and he said the casino operation was already shut down. Mario grabbed evidence from the casino and escaped. They called the police, and by the time they got there, all the workers and flowers were gone. As if they were never even there. The casino righted itself, and no one got in trouble. But, we got a tip-off from a Troopa that was fired that night. The flowers were being grown on Blooper Island and prepared at the casino. So, we got the four Marios to come with us." Birdo looked confused and worried. Daisy removed the burden and explained what happened after all that.  
  
"The seven of us flew to Blooper where we were directed to talk to Boshi. We went to Yo'Ster and found Yoshi and Boshi. Boshi showed us where the place was, but beforehand he made Toad smoke a deadly amount of strong pot. When we finally got there, the Mario's entered, and we were kidnapped at gunpoint. Boshi had sold us out to them. We still don't know where Mario, Luigi, Toad or Yoshi are, but we were held prisoner in Wario and Waluigi's apartment with the two of them. We escaped by blowing the place up, and then they abandoned us. Then, we crossed a long forest and came here. We had to come this way, or else snipers would have gotten us." A rush swept over Peach and Daisy. They didn't know it, but they had been through a lot in the past 36 hours. Birdo closed her eyes, sipped some of her drink, and then stared at the floor.  
  
"After all that... you're still looking beautiful." She squeaked. "But, I think I might be able to help you and send you on your way safely. I received an email one month ago from an old colleague. The boss of his gang, Shy Guy, told me that opportunity was knocking. He said that the old pros were getting back together to conquer the Mushroom Kingdom. He said once people realized that the only way to avoid the illness was to succumb, the Koopa Troop would be able to start an everlasting empire. I told him to stuff it. He was a recluse, but one smart enough to know he shouldn't have to do with Bowser. His biggest mistake was telling me that a special and deadly chemical was being extracted from a large root at the center of the Shy Temple. The same chemical used to infect the normal flowers, turning them black." She said calmly and snidely. Daisy had never really been kidnapped by Bowser's men, let alone in person. She hadn't been as close to such danger as Peach, but she did know one thing. Hearing his name in the same conversation as her own was the worst thing to happen to her all day.  
  
"Wait, stop!" Peach demanded.  
  
"Explain Bowser." Daisy said. They were thrilled to learn how to stop the flowers, but they couldn't continue the conversation without learning where Bowser was, what he was planning, and how to get as far from him as possible.  
  
"Sure, ask away." She remained with her cool. "When Shy Guy says the old pros, he means himself, Goomba, King Boo, and Koopa Troopa. They were the top generals for King Bowser back in the nineties and were known collectively as "Bowser's Baddies." They were ruthless and ingenious." Peach and Daisy gulped. There was a man who worked for Bowser, who was emailing a woman, who was in the same room as Peach and Daisy. They could smell death. Birdo, however, could not. "He said he was based in the Shy Temple on Shyster Island. If you plan to stop this flower epidemic, I suggest you attack it at its source. I'll provide you a safe transport back to Mushroom, but you must promise not to tell anyone that you even spoke with me. I'll call my driver, and he'll take you through Flarch, across the Mushroom Kingdom, and straight to Toadtown. He's a good man. And thorough." Peach and Daisy were overwhelmed by how hospitably Birdo was treating her old enemies.  
  
"Really, Birdo, you don't need to..." Peach tried to show her manners, though she was completely wrong in what she was saying.  
  
"Please, Peach," she repeated. "He's a good man. And thorough." The princesses let their smiles unfold. They were unsure of what to say.  
  
On the car ride home, they sat tensely and quietly in the black Cadillac. Though they trusted Birdo, the alert driver in the front seat and the tinted windows were hardly enough to calm the royal targets. Peach spotted black vans, Troopas in SWAT-like uniforms, and even a few men patrolling rooftops. Daisy almost screamed with anger when they passed Goomba's bustling casino for the third time in two days.  
  
Peach and Daisy were far too tired to finish the walk to Toadtown, and decided to head to the business headquarters and check in with the Chancellor. When they remembered that the entire town was covered in dark vines, they forced themselves to find their way to the nearest resting- place available. They went to Peach's castle. Dragging their feet across the small stone bridge, they silently entered the castle, switched the light on, and locked the door tightly. They climbed the stairs with moods that could fry a lava moat. When they reached Peach's room, they looked each other in the eye, kicked off their sneakers, and collapsed facedown on Peach's bed. They slept like a pair of Rip Van Fish. 


	11. Whiskey?

Luigi threw water on his face. It was hard to believe, but they had actually made some progress after their grueling adventure. No one was in the mood to laugh, and Wednesday night was turning into Thursday morning. Toad sat in a seat at the table, glazed over, while Mario tiresomely thumbed through the pages for about the fortieth time. Mallow and Geno sat at the computers searching through every database they could find. The only information that they had come up with before then was that they had seen Ninjis on the island before they met up with the Marios. It wasn't exactly useful information. Yoshi sat on an old futon, with a telephone in one hand, and a joint in the other. He was calling everyone he could think of. Anyone besides Boshi that could give any information. Everyone's mood had grown dark as the sky had done the same. Everyone had been working for the past four hours, trying to figure out what to do next. Though, they weren't the only ones. Every agent employed by the Sarassaland Administration was exhausting every method of investigation. Mario thought of it all as just a really bad episode of Law & Order. No one had received word from Peach, Daisy, Wario, or Waluigi. They were a little more than worried.  
  
When Mario, Luigi, Yoshi, Geno, Mallow, and Toad left Blooper, Toad had brought with him an envelope of what looked like a detailed plan involving plants. It was also marked "CONFIDENTIAL." Some of the papers were miniature blueprints, some were lists of names, the rest looked like computer code. But, none of them explained what or where anything was happening. The vines, leaves, buds, and flowers were now swinging around almost half of the Mushroom Kingdom. The situation had only gotten a lot worse, and looked to be even more devastating by the end of the week. The group needed to stay somewhere, and since Luigi knew people at the Sarassaland government headquarters, he explained the situation to them, and they checked the group into a nearby hotel. They also contacted the Mushroom investigators and exchanged information with them. Geno and Mallow were trying to come up with anything from the press that would reveal something tied to the black flowers from a while back. When Mario's head almost hit the table, he noticed a name that shot him right back up. Scojum. Scojum from Mushroom? Rose? Tadpole? Nimbus? No. It was Scojum from Blooper. Mario wouldn't have noticed it if there were a last name. It was only listed as Scojum, so it hit in nerve in Mario. He pushed himself up and jumped out of the seat.  
  
"Scojum! Scojum! Bar on Blooper. The guy that Waluigi knew! The ex- Ninji!" Mario was astonished he saw that very man on the list stolen from King Boo's base. The others slithered out of their half-asleep states. Luigi and Toad knew who Scojum was, but not Yoshi, Mallow and Geno. Yoshi asked about Scojum.  
  
"So, what's so important about a guy that Waluigi knew?" He expected no result.  
  
"He's on this roster." Mario explained his way through the narrow turn of events. "It's a list that's only marked 'Agents Removed Before Operation: Shy.'" Mallow was still having trouble with it.  
  
"So... I still don't get how that connects." Mario added more detail to the tapestry.  
  
"Some of the papers here are biological reports on the black flowers, and others are blueprints for what looks like a pyramid-shaped stone structure." He flipped back and forth to confirm his thoughts. "Yeah. Yeah, that means that the Shy Guys are the ones producing these damn things, and Ninjis were helping the Shy Guys on Blooper that Mallow and Geno saw earlier."  
  
Luigi couldn't be convinced of this at all. "Now, isn't that a real stretch...?" Mario plainly ignored him, and continued with the realization in which he was so engrossed.  
  
"I think there's a connection. "Operation: Shy" is probably their codename for selling their services to the Shy Guys on Shy Island and on Blooper." Mario wrapped his opinion tightly.  
  
Luigi was still sure this was impossible. "Well, wouldn't there be Ninjis going to Shy in baboom-numbers?" It was what convinced him that the Ninjis wouldn't go to Shy Island. Just then, Geno stripped that away. He was the only one that still hadn't looked up what he was doing. He and Geno had looked back in the news and kingdom reports for as far as the first time Tatanga invaded Sarassaland. But what they were looking for was right under their nose, and in their own time. All six of the men had been gone overnight. They hadn't seen the latest daily headlines that even the coastline sources see. Still staring at the screen, Geno read the title:  
  
"Ninji Troops Head for Shy Island In Large Numbers."  
  
"Oh..." Yoshi rocked back and forth. He was high at the time, but knew exactly what was wrong. "Urrrgh..." he complained, "SHIT! He's right. I just wish he wasn't."  
  
"What's wrong with Shy Guys? Remember when Wart came? Even I knocked a few out. This should be a piece of cake if they're the ones makin' these things!" Toad then coughed loudly. His throat was still sore from Boshi's torture on Yo'Ster. His mind was also slightly tired from his long and deadly nap. Yoshi clarified the problem.  
  
"Shy Guys are no good at fighting when they're over here. When they're at their base, Shy Temple, with their weapons and their resources and their booby-trapped temple..." Yoshi trailed off in a frustrated and tired voice.  
  
"I'm not going there." Mallow made up his mind instantly. "I've got a kingdom to protect when my folks need to pass it to me." Geno also did the same.  
  
"This wooden doll barely got me through repairing the Star Road, and it's the only thing I could still use all my powers in. I won't make it if I go with you guys up against both assassin groups."  
  
"Alright," Mario reluctantly accepted their resignation. "But you guys are still gonna need to gather information. We need all the help we can get."  
  
"Anything." Mallow agreed. Luigi finalized the situation. He seemed desperate.  
  
"Wario and Waluigi are missing, which is... bad, I guess. Peach and Daisy are missing, which is horrible. We've been captured by Goomba AND Boo, the virus flowers are still running amok, and the only way to uncover anything else is for Mario, Yoshi, Toad, any spare soldiers, and myself to go to Shy Island and go up against the Shy Guys and the Ninjis." He stood frozen, at 2 A.M., his hair a mess, and his life already on the line. Toad looked across the table at the equally drained Mario.  
  
He slid him a bottle, and offered. "Whiskey?" 


	12. Daddy

Four unique plumbers know their grandfather as a man named Nonnino Mario, which is Italian for Grandpapa Mario. Nonnino Mario lived in Italy, far into retirement. He lived a healthy and heroic adulthood, having fought an evil dragon. He also protested the Great War at home and in America.  
  
What is interesting about his name is that his last is the same as his first. He was the fifth Mario Mario in the chain, and he continued the tradition by planning to name his first born boy Mario Mario. He and his wife, as two happy farmers, had a pair of baby twin boys. They were only expecting one. The one that came out first—the first born—was named Mario Mario. Mario was shocked, and could only think of the idea for the second boy's name he found when he fell down, and caught a glimpse of an upside- down M.  
  
The two boys, Mario and Wario, were complete foils. As a baby, Mario's face was infinitely soft, and Wario's ears were partially pointed. As toddlers, Mario always wanted to share, and Wario always wanted to steal. In their college years, while Mario helped injured people, Wario helped to injure people. Their father loved them both, but was always disappointed at Wario's actions. Eventually, the two men married and each had a set of twin boys, which, surprisingly, were born all on the same day. Mario avoided his father's mistake, and prepared a second name, just in case. He named his first son Mario, and his second son Luigi. Luigi weighed eight ounces less than Mario, and that gap increased greatly in the following years. As a result of this, Wario decided to spoof his family's tradition, and name his first son Wario Mario. He even countered the second half and named his second twin Waluigi. He later realized that it was a stupid mistake to be so immature, but still stuck with his pride. Both men made special hats by hand for their boys. Mario made a red hat with a red M embroidered into a white patch on the front for Mario. He did the same thing with a green hat for Luigi, but with an L, of course. In the first few days of their lives, Mario and Luigi were kidnapped by a Magikoopa from the Mushroom world, and were saved, hats and all, by a green creature named Yoshi. Wario's hats were a bit sloppy, but lasted just as long as the other two. Wario's yellow hat was wide and flattened, with an upside-down purple M, and Waluigi's purple hat was pointy, with an upside-down yellow L. Confused? So were they.  
  
Like Wario, his first baby was heavy, to say the least. However, oddly enough, Waluigi was unusually thin and tall. He only took up half as much room in the womb as Wario. The four children grew up together, and things didn't go well. Mario and Luigi bickered with each other here and there, as did Wario with Waluigi. But, it was nothing compared to how the two sides handled themselves around each other. Wario and Waluigi waged dirty and ruthless bullying on Mario and Luigi in the first few years of life. Mario and Luigi drove Wario and Waluigi mad with annoyance by constantly telling them of how they didn't approve of their lying, stealing, and cheating. When they were almost nine, the four boys moved to America with their fathers. By this age, many were aware of the Marios' incredible jumping and strange athletic ability that had never been seen in any previous members of the Mario family. They lived in Brooklyn, and later attended technical schools where they studied to become plumbers. They were all naturals. They even started to wear outfits on the job that matched their hats. Though, they worked apart as two completely separate duos.  
  
The father of Mario and Luigi was an honest, giving, full-time plumber. He fixed sinks and toilets, and taught his sons. The father of Wario and Waluigi was only a part-time plumber. This is because he only owned a small plumbing business as a front. He was known among the underworld as a furious member of a Brooklyn crime family from the early seventies until the late eighties. Just like in his early years, he was a creep.  
  
Mario and Luigi discovered the warp pipe to the world that housed the Mushroom Kingdom, and had literally moved an entire world away from their evil cousins. A week later Wario and Waluigi found out and stuck their noses into the whole deal. They didn't realize how dangerous the world was at the time, but they survived anyway. They arrived and plundered a few Mushroom citizens, and a small port on Yo'Ster Isle. They used this money to buy a fortress. When they heard news that Mario and Luigi were world heroes, they had quite a laugh. But when Mario broke into Wario's castle, beat him in battle, and saved the section of the kingdom that Wario usurped, he believed it. Still, he looked down on Mario as nothing but an annoying little cream puff. He later built himself back up by conquering Kitchen Island and buying an even bigger castle. But as Mario and Luigi had left for Dinosaur Land, Wario and Waluigi bet that castle on their deaths. Years later, Wario finally lost the castle.  
  
After things had calmed down, and both sets of twins had tied themselves down in Mushroom, they returned to the real world and took their parents with them to the Mushroom, which was a paradise except for the common criminals and the infamous Koopa Troop. Papa Mario remained a plumber. He fixed peoples' sinks, pools, and toilets. Papa Wario remained an asshole. He drowned people in sinks, pools, and toilets when they didn't agree to his plans. Wario and Waluigi never got involved in their father's business. That changed one fateful day, as they had dropped in on him the night before. Of course, they fixed his toilet also.  
  
White satin sheets covered two sleeping bodies that rested their heads on white feather pillows. The sheets were covered by white quilts, which were in a room with white tiled floors, white furniture. Bathed in white sunlight. Finally clean and rested, Wario and Waluigi rose with happy grins. The smooth, low, and smoky voice of their father floated from the doorway. Papa Wario was standing there fully dressed in a white suit. "Boys... breakfast is served." Papa Wario always spoiled his irresponsible and lazy kids. He had lost a little hair and gained a little money. Now, he was richer than ever and was giving them all they could fit into their stomachs. As they rose from their beds, two maids, with soldier-like attentiveness, made up the beds. Two hot showers were already drawn, as the brothers quickly noticed.  
  
While Waluigi led his brother downstairs, finally feeling refreshed after a full stomach and a good night's sleep, he noticed that he had reached a comfort zone. Aside from the flowers near the center of Mushroom Kingdom that they decided to no longer bother themselves with, everything was fine. When they reached the ground floor, they saw that the sun was shining, the birds were chirping, Wario and Waluigi's father was rich, they were protected, and Peach and Daisy were sitting in the center of the living room tied and gagged. After Wario and Waluigi finished their eggs and bacon, which was their first priority, Wario finally spoke up.  
  
"So... pop. Why do you have the princesses of the Mushroom Kingdom and Sarassaland tied and gagged in your house?" He said between gulps of rich orange juice. Their father smoothed his thick mustache, and showed his large grin that resembled that of his eldest son. He then composed himself, sat down at the table, across from his sons. "Boys, do you remember why we came to America?"  
  
"Because you were dodging a life sentence?" Waluigi said in his usual non-chalant, sarcastic tone. Papa Wario sighed at the disrespect.  
  
"Please. We came because of the opportunity. Just like your Uncle Mario, and your cousins. Then, we all found our way to the world of the Mushroom people. The only difference is that they were afraid to accomplish. Sure, they got by finding work in plumbing and construction, but I achieved greatness. It's time for you boys to do the same." Wario and Waluigi weren't too emphatic about getting into any crime. At least not at a complex and organized level. They tried to add this up in their heads, but nothing made sense.  
  
"What do the brats have to do with it?" Wario asked, motioning toward the two highly distressed damsels. "And how did they even get here?"  
  
"Last night, I had a few of my men bring them here. An inside man working as an attendant in Peach's castle confirmed their location, and my men, conveniently, snatched them up like loose gold coins. The reason I have had them brought here is because along with the independent assassin gangs, the Shy Guys and the Ninjis, I am going to be aiding a great and successful being. One whom I have heard you have been quite rude to in the past." Papa Wario raised his voice a bit but remained patient. "He is the leader of a vast military power, and they have just occupied a new island. His name is Koopa Troopa. He says he's been trying to get his hands on these elusive women for about a month now. But somehow, I managed to grab hold of them in a day after I received a call from him." He folded his hands and smiled. "He is offering a handsome reward for their capture, and I want you two to be at the exchange.  
  
"Why do you want us to go with you?" Waluigi asked skeptically. "Are you afraid someone is going to pull something funny?"  
  
Papa Wario chuckled a bit. "No, no, Waluigi. I merely want my sons to grace me with their presence. You are getting a bit too old not to learn these things. Your birthday is tomorrow! How old are you two going to be? Thirty-three? Four? Five?"  
  
"Thirty-seven, dad." Wario said irritably without looking up.  
  
"A lovely age. The boat leaves at noon. It is now nine. I'll see you in a few hours. And don't worry yourselves. This will all be but a simple operation. 


	13. Don't Be Shy

Chapter 13-Don't Be Shy  
  
At about the same moment Wario was munching on a red cooked crab claw, Luigi was shaking a live and clamping crab claw off of his finger. It finally fell off into the shallow water, and scurried away with its creepy crustatious legs. He winced and held his ring finger tightly in his other hand to numb the pain.  
  
The Marios and Toad were not pleased at the current situation. There was no sign of Peach or Daisy anywhere. Still, many were counting on them to make it to Shy Island and destroy what was being held in the complex. They stuck to their mission, knowing it couldn't wait. Over half of the Mushroom Kingdom was covered in a thick green fog, spawning more black vines and flowers. People were running out of space in which to take refuge, and plants were popping up and choking out other plants. And yet this epidemic which was threatening the life of and on the planet itself was all supported by the Shy Guys, Ninjis, Goombas, Boos, Troopas, and unbeknownst to the Marios, the mob. Whoever was at the head of this had quite an agenda.  
  
The boat they used to get to Shy Island wasn't much. It at least had a decent motor, but since the Mushroom Headquarters was tied up with the flower problem, it was all they could provide on such short notice. Mario, Luigi, Toad and Yoshi arrived in one of the three small boats. Behind them were two boats, each was carrying three Mushroom soldiers. They knew they had hit the right island. They wished they were wrong. The jungle in front of them was thick and dark. The wet beach they were standing on was crawling with unfriendly creatures. The men could see the mammoth ancient Shy Guy statue that was standing at the foot of the temple. Everything on the blueprint that was found in the secret file was correct. There were seven floors, a lava moat around the base, and large living roots running up and into the walls of the building. They were connected to the HUD for all of the black flowers that were spreading like a deadly virus. It was no coincidence. They knew what they had to do.  
  
Manpower wasn't the only purpose the Mushroom soldiers were to serve. They weren't, by any means, experienced combatants. They didn't even have the basic Mushroom military uniform on. They were more skilled in computer hacking. Though it was an ancient temple, the Shy Guys were employing the use of technology to guard what they held the most valuable. When studying the blueprint, it appeared that there were six systems, and all were connected to a security mainframe. Each system toggled one of six locks to a door on the top floor, behind which was unknown. It was only blank space on the diagram. The specialists were needed to try their hand at getting past it and toward another piece in the jagged puzzle. Though, all six men were needed. They were trained in six different sects of cracking into security programs. They had no idea what kind of electronic help they would need.  
  
"MMMhhhmmm!" A war cry that sounded more like a wheeze shot from the woods. A green Shy Guy tumbled out in a somersault, and landed with his boomerang in hand. Two more came out with spears. They knew exactly why the Marios were there. Accompanying the Shy Guys were the members of the gang of vertically challenged martial artists, the Ninjis.  
  
The masked man in green threw his boomerang. Then Mushroom militia was very light, informal, and poorly equipped. It consisted mostly of volunteers. The man the boomerang was targeting had only a handgun. He ducked quickly and stuck it in the air. To everyone's surprise, as he was hunched over with his eyes shut tightly, the boomerang collided with the firearm and snapped in half. The thrower looked on in confusion.  
  
The two groups had fought each other hundreds of years ago, but it later became a mass partnership in which they occasionally served the Koopa dynasty, but mostly worked independently as assassins. Their most known moment was their brief affiliation with Wart. The latest activity the Ninjis and Shy Guys had been involved in up to this point was the labor and combat force in Smithy's factory. Other than that, they had dispersed. But now, they were serving the head of a master plan. They were two ancient villain tribes contributing to whoever it was that wanted the black flowers out in the open.  
  
The two Shy Guys with spears each let out a loud war cry. About five more masked Shy Guys and five black hooded Ninjis poured out from the trees brandishing bamboo, slingshots, and even machetes. Mario and Luigi gulped hard. Toad made a weird and untimely noise. Mario was able to put two quick punches to a charging yellow Shy Guy. He then jumped out of the way, using a rare super jump technique. In less than a second and in one quick move, another man from behind wrapped Mario's legs in tight vines. His arms also became caught. He had nothing to break his fall, and his face plunged right into the wet sand. He felt discouraged, but that feeling later joined hands with understanding. He noticed that four of the Mushroom soldiers were already captured. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Luigi riding on Yoshi in an attempt to trample the myriad of Shy Guys that were approaching. It didn't work. A dart pierced the side of Yoshi's neck. He held his shoulder with his small hands, but couldn't keep himself from falling unconscious. Toad was struggling with two Ninjis. His effort against the prominent fighters was not even close to realistic. He was trying to hide his trembling, and to appear powerful, but he had clearly lost before he hit shore. Within fifteen minutes, everyone was sitting in a jail cell.  
  
Sling Shys, or Shy Guys who specialized in slingshot wielding, guarded the cells. Mario and Luigi shared a cell, as did Yoshi and Toad, across from the Marios. The Mushroom men were nowhere to be seen. Mario remembered the last time they were trapped in a cell, just two nights before. The only reason they had gotten out was because someone unlocked the door for them. This time, it was a little trickier.  
  
Toad eyed the one of the four guards facing his cell, as he looked out with his hands on the bars. He always wondered what was behind the mask. He knew it was a face similar to his, but the mystery killed him. What frightened Toad about Ninjis and Shy Guys was how closely related they were to the Mushroom people. The Goombas had evolved in a different direction, both physically and mentally, and were sworn enemies of the Mushroom people. The Boos were just Goomba ghosts. The Koopas were reptilian. But the only way to tell a Mushroom man from a Shy Guy or a Ninji was by their outfit. That, and their agenda. They talked, but avoided it whenever possible. He tried to measure the Shy Guy's demeanor, but the shrouding guise wouldn't yield any information. His eyes narrowed, and he trembled with anger. He felt the hand of Yoshi grip his shoulder. He heard his mouth move, and knew that he was whispering something, but couldn't make head nor tail of the inaudible speech. "Hm?" Toad asked quietly. Yoshi repeated the same string of half-words, only slower. He even exaggerated the movement of his lips and syllable rhythm, but Toad still didn't understand. The Shy Guy that Toad was staring at let out his savage voice. First, he said it calmly.  
  
"Get the fuck out here." He pulled out a key and opened the cell door. He yanked Yoshi between the door and the iron bar wall. He held him in place by his neck so he couldn't run away, and so Toad couldn't make an exit. "Bombers? I heard that! I know exactly what you whispered to him! 'The bombers will be here soon.' When will they? Tell me everything, now."  
  
Yoshi tested the Shy Guy by blowing blatant lies in his face. "I told him the lobsters would be deer soon." Very quickly, he lost patience. He slapped Yoshi in the face.  
  
"Don't fuck with me! Tell me now!" Toad had no idea what to think. The Mushroom Kingdom was a peace-loving nation, and couldn't provide such heavy firepower or aircraft even if they wanted to. Only Bowser was known to use airships in waging heavy battle. But still, bombers could have been on their way from somewhere else. He just had no idea where else they would be from, or why they would come to rescue the Marios. Yoshi stared blankly as the masked man interrogated him once more. "WHEN ARE THEY COMING!?"  
  
To everyone's surprise, a long red rope of flesh and muscle stormed out of Yoshi's mouth at lightning speed. It curled to the left and wrapped itself around the Sling Shy's head. He pulled back, and in one quick motion, pulled the entire body into his mouth. His jaw grew to about three times its original size. He also compressed the Shy Guy's body for that tight squeeze. He wasn't hurt or killed, but he was definitely captive. The seven remaining guards were frozen in shock. Yoshi knew they weren't prepared for another move, so he let them have it. After he was finished feeling around for a certain small metal object, he tucked it to the side of his cheek, cocked his neck, and with fury in his eyes, he pushed out with his lungs and tongue. Covered in spit, the Shy Guy flew out and across the small room. He also knocked two more Shy Guys into the stone wall in the process. Five angry men drew their high powered slingshots just as Yoshi spit the metal object upward and across the room. It nearly hit one of the bars on Mario and Luigi's cell, but hit the inside wall, and bounced to the floor. Mario picked it up, stuck his hand out and quickly unlocked the door. He kicked the door open and nailed another guard with it. There were only four guards left. Two of them already had slingshots drawn and aimed. Though standing at an inopportune angle, Toad dropped quickly to land on his hands and bottom, and pushed up to put leverage into kicking a Sling Shy with both his feet. He hit the enemy's legs sharply, and he fell to the floor wailing. Mario felt a heavy pellet strike him in the forehead. The blow was only enough to stun him, but it would have killed him if it were fired at full speed. He felt pain in his entire body, and blood was rushing to the traumatized area. His face turned red and he fell to the floor. He fell next to first Shy Guy who had been sucked in and spit out. Luigi glared in absolute fury at the armed attacker. He crouched, and built energy to the point where he felt it coarse through him. He pushed up with his legs, and jumped nearly twice his own height. He dealt with the Shy Guy in a way that he had before. He landed on his shoulders, and grabbed at his head. He feigned a fall from him, and caught his body in his arms as he landed safely on the ground.. He lifted the small but able Shy Guy above his head, and tossed him like a barrel. He slammed into the face of another Shy Guy, and the two fell back in a chain reaction. At the same time, the last Shy Guy was slashing a samurai sword at Toad's shins. Toad jumped over the blade, and the falling pair toppled the Shy Guy with the sword. The momentum sent all three of them hurdling into the wall with a thud. In about thirteen seconds, the Marios, Yoshi, and Toad had escaped from their cells and immobilized the guards. The eight men lay dazed and beaten. But, the Shy Guy whose clothes were still torn from Yoshi's teeth used the last of his energy to push himself up and raise a knife. He eyed the blue pant legs housing the tendons on the back of Luigi's legs. If they were injured, he would never walk again. The Shy Guy lunged as Yoshi and Toad gasped, with no time to warn their friend. But this motion was interrupted. The hand thrusting the knife was crushed between the frame of a jail cell door, and Mario's shoe. He still stared to the side and into space, with his eyes wobbling, but his target was a hit and success. Yoshi already had an arm around the neck of the Shy Guy who had been interrogating him.  
  
"Where are they? Tell me where the men are." Yoshi asked.  
  
"Die… dinosaur." choked the Shy Guy. Yoshi tightened his grip and his tongue popped out. He coughed and sputtered. Yoshi loosened just enough to let him talk.  
  
"One on each floor in cells. Except top floor. One through six." He rasped.  
  
"Give me the master cell key." Yoshi tightened the grip again even tighter to let the Shy Guy know that lying wouldn't be a good move.  
  
"One that the red guy has. It's the Master key." He managed to sputter. Yoshi dropped him and he fell unconscious. The four exited the room.  
  
Fifteen minutes later, a few hundred feet across the temple, a large room with nothing but four large pillars and an elevator opposite the huge entrance and a jail cell in the left wall was silently guarded by two Shy Guys. It was also silently occupied by four visitors. The guards faced the entrance. One looked at his watch.  
  
"The relief fifteen minutes late. I'm not waiting any longer."  
  
"Alright." The second Shy Guy replied as he looked at his watch also. "Let's go see where they are. This guy isn't going anywhere." They walked toward the entrance quickly. One walked between the first and second pillar, and the other walked between the third and fourth. Mario inched around to the left of the first pillar and Yoshi inched around the right side of the second. Toad and Luigi did the same with the third and fourth. They weren't seen or heard at all.  
  
They waited for the guards to leave completely, and Mario ran to the jail cell. He opened the door and the first hostage darted out. "Alright, let's get the others and open the door."  
  
Luckily, the next five cells weren't guarded. Long hallways wound through the gigantic temple. They whirled the heroes in circles, and many a time they were almost caught by patrolling enemies when turning corners. Ducking into crevices and empty rooms solved this. Within an hour, ten men were riding in an elevator on their way to the top floor. The floors had gotten smaller as they approached the top, but this was the biggest room they had found. It no doubt made up at least half the entire floor. Six gigantic mainframes lined the walls, and on the wall across from the elevator, a vertical hatch that stretched to every corner sat closed and locked. Each of the hackers ran to the console of a supercomputer. They slid in the cards attached to their decoders and began to work. Six large blue lights at the top of each computer, along the ceiling, switched to green one by one. The middle right light stayed blue though. The Mushroom man working that mainframe was sweating and looking worried. He punched buttons and tried everything he could think of. He paused, smiled, and made three last keystrokes. His lock unlocked. Airbrakes sounded and gear cranked. The enormous door slid open. They saw a railing that they soon realized was at the top of a balcony which went all the way around the room. About ten feet down, the black monstrosity throbbed. The petals stretched almost to each wall and were thick as tire rubber. There were more buds growing in the center. They looked like they weighed hundreds of pounds. Thick vines covered the ground under it. The largest flower any of them had ever seen sat planted in the floor, which was entirely soil.  
  
"Should we do it?" asked one of the men that opened the door.  
  
"Let's surround it first." Toad instructed. Two people stood on one side, and one stood at each corner. "Aim for the centerpiece's edge that's closest to you, everyone! Crack'em!" Each person took out his compact explosive material. They looked like Burger King toys, but they were so reactive, it only took two to blow up a small bar and an apartment. They were miniature Bob-ombs. They were weapons that could only be acquired from underground dealers and from Bowser's army, the Koopa Troop. The men twisted the winders to start the three-minute timer, and tossed them down to the mother flower.  
  
"Now let's get out of here!!!" Mario screamed. They all ran to the elevator and quickly hit the ground floor button. It took forever for the elevator to come to a stop at the first floor. They stepped out and were finally safe. The explosion had no way of reaching the first floor. Just as they were getting used to not seeing any guards, they heard the footsteps of two Shy Guys. Instead of running toward the front of the temple and out to the jungle, the caravan had to get to the back and out to the ocean. Mario and Luigi busted through the doors and saw nothing outside but a dock, twenty half-empty crates of bullets, a crane, and a large boat. They all looked at each other hesitantly, and Mario made the decision for them.  
  
"Yeah… get in! Let's go! Hurry, before they get out here!" Each dove into one of the crates and pulled the lid closed. Chains were around each crate, but they were tied loosely enough for everyone to lift the lid about two feet and squeeze their bodies inside. A few beats went by, and the top floor of the temple exploded. The doors opened again. A few minutes later, the two Shy Guys came out talking.  
  
"We're still going!?" One of the Shy Guys asked.  
  
"Yeah, they said we still need to get these over there, we're gonna have to help them deal with the flower later.  
  
"Where we taking these?" One asked.  
  
"Donkey Kong Island. K. T. and his guys need them." They got into the boat, and from a drill hole, Luigi saw the crane attached to the temple start to move. It lifted up each box and placed it on the deck of the boat. It sped off toward its destination. Sitting in the crates, not one stowaway knew why in the world the Shy Guys would be delivering ammunition to a person named K.T. at Donkey Kong's home. All they had left to do was hurry up and wait for destiny. Though they didn't know if they were ever going home, they had infiltrated the Shy Temple and saved the world from the virus-carrying flowers. 


End file.
